THE   ROBERT   E.  COWRN  COLLECTION 

I'RKBKXTED    TO    THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CRLIFORNIR 


C.  P,  HUNTINGTON 

;iNE,    :8Q7. 

t-7  /\      J 

Recession  No. 


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Down  With  Tyranny 


EMIL  KLOPFER. 


REPUBLIC : 

Enlightenment,  Freedom  and   Peace. 

MONARCHY : 

Ignorance,  Slavery  and  War. 


PUBLISHED    1]V 
ALAMEDA,   CAL. 


Down  With  Tyranny 


EMIL  KLOPFER. 


REPUBLIC: 

Enlightenment,-  Freedom  and  Peace, 

MONARCHY : 

Ignorance,  Slavery  and  War. 


1892: 

EMIL  KLOPFER,  Publisher, 

ALAMEDA,  GAL, 


Copyright,  1892, 


PEEFAeE. 


Every  braye  and  honest  man  wlio  loves 
Freedom  and  Liberty^  sees  in  Tyranny  his 
greatest  enemy.  By  holding  and  standing 
together,  all  tyranny  can  be  destroyed — 
every  "tyrant  can  be  made  harmless. 

THE  AUTHOR. 


DOWN  WITH  TYRANNY. 


CHAPTER  L 

That,  with  the  exception  of  France  and 
Switzerland,  the  only  two  enlightened  na- 
tions in  Europe,  the  Old  World  can  be  still 
terrorized  to-day  in  the  year  eighteen  hun- 
dred and  ninety-two,  by  a  handful  of  des- 
pots, seems  to  a  thinking  person  simply  in- 
credible. 

If  the  European  people  would  know  their 
strength,  they  certainly  would  soon  get  rid 
of  royalty,  and  would  not  allow  themselves 
to  be  sent  and  butchered  like  cattle  on  the 
battlefields. 

So  long  as  the  day  of  a  fundamental 
change  in  political  organization  has  not 
come,  so  long  will  European  people  remain 
in  the  same  slavery  and  ignorance,  and  so 
long  will  no  one  dream  of  freedom  and  lib- 
erty, and  of  personal  protection  and  security. 

Men  will  be  torn  from  their  wives;  fa- 
thers from  their  children,  youths  from  their 
sweethearts — in  order  to  serve  as  gladia- 
tors for  the  amusement  of  European  roy- 
alty.   They  are  pitted  against  each  other 


6  DOT\rNr   WITH   TYRANNY. 

like  fighting  cocks,  and  in  tlieir  interest 
tliey  tliey  have  to  sacrifice  themselves  by' 
hundred  thousands. 

The  dreams  of  those  w^ho  thinlv  that  the 
standing  armies  may  be  removed,  or  even 
reduced  in  number,  will  never  be  realized 
as  long  as  royalty  is  in  power.  These  are 
well  meaning  yearnings,  but  in  reality  noth- 
ing but  phantasms  originating  in  the  brains 
of  unthinking  people. 

To  remove  the  standing  armies  without 
removing  royalty  is  just  as  impossible  as  it 
is  to  see  the  sun  or  the  moon  falling  through 
a  chimney  into  a  frying  pan. 

Tlie  army  is  the  only  protection;  the  oidy 
security  of  European  tyranny.  Without 
armies,  that  artificially  built  up  humbug 
would  fall  to  pieces  like  a  miserable  soap- 
bubble,  and  the  European  people  would  have 
long  since  driven  their  oppressors  from 
power. 

If  the  European  people  would  relieve  roy- 
alty of  its  external  masquerade,  and  if  they 
would  retake  what  has  been  stolen  from 
them  during  centuries,  then  nothing  else 
but  an  empty  husk  would  remain,  for  which 
even  a  rustic  country  clown  would  shrug 
his  shoulders  with  contempt.  Eoyalty 
treats  every  one  that  is  not  blue-blooded 
en  canaille.    Royalty  thinks  it  dishonorable 


DO^^    VnTH    TYRANNY.  7 

to  mix  up  with  the  people — but  does  not 
disdain  to  get  fattened  and  supported  by 
them.  Without  the  support  of  the  people, 
royalty  would  starve  to  death,  and  could 
not  make  its  living,  not  even  as  washer- 
women or  swineherds. 

Koyalty  devours  every  year  thousands  of 
millions  of  dollars.  Eoyalty  eats  the  sub- 
stance of  the  land  and  of  the  people;  and 
instead  of  being  thankful,  it  treats  them 
in  the  meanest,  most  infamous  ^manner. 

With  mistresses  and  concubines,  and  in 
champagne  and  gambling,  royalty  squan- 
ders away  in  a  single  night  the  toil  of  thous- 
ands of  brave  and  honest  working  men,  and 
it  makes  no  dilTerence  whatever  to  them  if, 
in  consequence  of  those  orgies,  the  poor,  un- 
fortunate people  are  despairing  and  dying 
for  hunger  and  privation  like  dogs  in  the 
street. 

To  escape  the  furious  rage  of  the  people, 
royalty  is  protected  by  a  standing  army  of 
over  three  millions  of  soldiers.  In  a  false 
and  malicious  manner  it  is  spread  about 
that  such  armies  are  necessary  to  keep  the 
peace  and  the  equilibrium  of  Europe. 

If  royalty  sees  that  the  throne  is  endan- 
gered by  its  own  subjects,  then,  as  experi- 
ence has  shown,  it  declares,  under  a  void 
pretext,  war  to  some  other  nation,  in  order 


$  DOWN    WITH    TYBAN^TY. 

to  get  rid  of  a  burden  which  has  become 
troublesome  and  dangerous. 

Those  frauds  and  arrogant  impostors  call 
themselves  majesties  "  by  the  grace  of  God" ; 
and  with  their  blaspheming  tongues  they 
want  to  make  those  poor  intimidated  people 
believe  that  God  has  appointed  tliem  to  be 
their  rulers  and  masters. 

Mad  dogs  whicfc  may  prove  dangerou?^  to 
a  community  are  extirpated  all  over  the 
world.  Eoyalty,  which  is  far  more  danger- 
ous than  mad  dogs,  is,  with  the  exception  of 
two  enlightened  countries,  still  allowed  to 
inin  all  over  Europe. 

People  who  do  not  make  vise  of  their 
brains  perhaps  may  think  these  remarks 
are  simply  outrageous.  But  thinking  peo- 
ple— those  who  know  what  goes  on  in  the 
world — who  know  the  infamous  deeds  com- 
mitted almost  daily  by  European  despots, 
and  that  they  emanate  from  the  will  of  a 
single  person — as  for  instance  at  present  in 
RussLa — see  that  to  throw  millions  of  brave, 
honest,  industrious  people  into  the  greatest 
misery  is  deplorable,  and  will  easily  under- 
stand that  royalty  is  still  a  thousand  times 
worse  than  the  most  dangerous  animif|) 

If  these  miserable,  cowardly  tryants  are 
allowed  to  trample  upon  the  mutTial  rights 
of  men  and  io  treat  them  worse  than  ani- 


DOWN    WITH    TYRANX\.  9 

mals — why  fshouldn't  the  poor  unfortunate 
people  pounce  upon  their  oppressors  and  do 
their  best  to  get  rid  of  them  in  one  way  or 
another? 

Europe  would  then  be  a  Paradise  in  every 
respect,  and  the  European  people  could  en- 
joy freedom  and  liberty  and  the  blessings 
of  life  in  the  same  v/ay  as  now  enjoyed  by 
the  inhabitants  of  the  freest  and  most  ad- 
vanced country  in  the  world.  But  to  real- 
ize those  mshes  it  is  first  necessary  that 
the  people  hold  and  stand  together,  and 
that  they  do  as  Switzerland  did  over  six 
hundred  years  ago — what  the  patriotic 
Americans  did  during  their  struggle  for 
freedom,  liberty  and  independence — and 
what  France  did  during  its  glorious  revolu- 
tion of  the  last  century. 

If  America  had  not  had  men  like  George 
Washington,  who  loved  freedom  and  liberty 
more  than  their  own  lives,  then  very  prob- 
ably America  would  be  to-day  still  a  Brit- 
ish Colony,  and  the  Americans,  like  the 
Canadians  and  the  Australians — ^nothing 
but  tools  and  instruments  in  the  hands 
of  their  English  oppressors. 

All  the  thousands  of  millions  of  money 
that  at  present  drop  into  the  pockets  of 
those  imperial  and  royal  frauds  would 
otherwise    remain    with    the    people.      It 


10  DOWN   WITH   TYEANNY. 

would  be  a  blessing  to  themselves  and  to 
tlieir  oountiy;  besides  reserving  the 
strength  of  millions  of  soldiers — composed 
of  the  best  of  European  youth —  for  their 
own  interest,  rather  than,  as  at  present, 
serving  as  a  shelter  or  body-guard  for  a  lot 
of  miserable,  contemptible  wretches. 

If  the  European  people  would  collect  roy- 
alties together,  take  away  what  they  have 
stolen  from  them  for  centuries,  and  then 
send  them  over  to  America,  royalty  would 
starve  to  death.  They  could  be  used  in  this 
country  only  for  a  dime  museum,  or  for  a 
menagerie,  to  lead  the  lame  and  the  blind 
monkeys  to  the  toilet  and  dining-rooms. 


CHAPTER  II. 

In  every  monarchy  truth  is  considered  its 
greatest  enemy.  A  monarchy  can  be  kept 
together  only  by  lies  and  frauds,  and  there- 
fore every  government  takes  good  care  that 
the  i)eople  remain  ignorant. 

England,  of  course,  is  to  a  certain  extent, 
an  exception.  Newspaper  men  are  allowed 
to  T\a'ite  only  what  is  in  the  interest  of  their 
government.  If  an  editor  does  not  adhere 
to  his  instructions,  and  dares  to  go  his  own 
way,  then  he  is  thrown  into  prison,  his  pa- 


DOWN   WITU   TYRANNY.  11 

per  (ronfisc<itGd,  and  his  GRtnblisliment 
closed. 

No  thoughtful  person  will  deny  that  a 
free  press,  like  that  of  America,  is  the  glory 
of  the  nation.  The  more  newspapers  a 
country  has,  the  more  enlightened  the  in- 
habitants become.  The  intelligence  and  the 
education  of  the  American  people  are 
largely  due  to  American  newspaj)ers. 

Reporters,  as  we  have  them  in  Amer- 
ica, are  there  entirely  unknown. 

Some  years  ago  I  had  an  amusing  little 
dispute  about  the  rights  of  American  re- 
porters with  a  relation  of  mine  in  Germany. 
I  told  him  that  if  the  Emperor  of  German}^ 
should  come  over  to  America,  he  woidd 
have  the  honor  of  being  interviewed  by  a 
small  army  of  reporters,  who  would  make 
him  at  once  familiar  with  the  customs  of  a 
free  country.  I  did  not  think  he  could  feel 
insidted,  or  even  angry,  at  my  remarks, 
but  he  stuck  up  his  nose,  and  told  me  in 
a  scornful  way  that  in  case  his  Emperor 
should  come  over  to  America,  he  surely 
would  not  mix  with  such  common  and  low 
people  as  newspaper  reporters — that  he 
would  shoot  them  down,  have  them  arrest- 
ed, or  kick  them  out  of  his  room  himself. 

I  smiled  and  answered  that  such  a  thing 
was  of  course  easy  to  say,  but  very  hard  to 


1^  DO^Y^    WITH    TYRANNY. 

do,  and  especially  iu  a  country  where  intel- 
ligence, and  the  power  of  brains  and  not  ig- 
norance, and  the  power  of  brute  strength, 
as  in  his  dear  beloved  Germany,  are  appre- 
ciated. 

I  stopped  the  conversation  after  I  had 
worked  him  up  to  such  an  extent  that  he 
behaved  almost  like  a  mad-man.  He  swore 
and  cursed  at  America,  at  the  Americans, 
and  at  everything  that  was  American,  and 

said  he  would  rather  go  to than  to — ~ 

America. 

It  is  a  pity  that  in  those  countries  think- 
ing is  entirely  unknown.  Every  one  has 
to  believe  in  the  infallibility  of  those  mis- 
erable, lying  royal  wretches. 

He  who  commences  to  think,  or  he  who 
begins  to  make  use  of  his  brains  and  of  his 
common  sense,  antagonizes  himself  at  once 
with  the  existing  laws  of  his  country.  He 
is  considered  dangerous  to  the  Government, 
and  an  enemy  to  his  country,  and  runs  the 
risk  of  being  thrown  in  prison,  or  dragged 
by  police-force  out  of  his  bed,  from  wife  and 
children,  and  driven  into  banishment  from 
his  native  country  and  home. 

Koyalty  considers  the  people  as  milch- 
cows  which  have  to  bleed,  to  suffer  and  to 
starve  in  order  to  give  them  a  pleasant 
and  comfortable  life.     They    think,    or    at 


DOWN    V>'IT1I 


least  they  try  to  make  tliem  believe,  that 
it  is  their  Divine  right,  granted  them  by 
God;  and  therefore  the  people  are  not  allow- 
ed to  complain. 

The  people  have  no  will  whatever;  they 
have  to  obey  and  to  be  quiet,  and  every  re- 
sistence  on  their  part  is  suppressed  at  once 
with  cruel,  merciless  severity. 

Here  in  America  no  one  would  believe 
what  forcible  measures  they  have  to  employ 
in  European  slave  states  to  squeeze  such 
fabulous  amounts  out  of  the  poor  suffering 
people — amounts  which  are  necessary  to  up- 
hold the  power  and  the  external  humbug  of 
European  royalty. 

An  observing  person  would  be  inclined  to 
think  that  more  respect  is  due  the  bandit- 
chiefs  of  the  Italian  and  Albanian  moun- 
tain ranges  than  European  royalty. 

The  bandits  take  money  from  the  rich, 
who,  more  or  less,  have  stolen  it  also,  and 
leave  the  poor  unmolested.  Koyalty,  on  the 
contrary,  takes  from  the  poor  and  leaves 
the  rich,  who  out  of  personal  interest  re- 
main loyal  to  their  party,  practically  un- 
molested. 

If  the  people  knew  what  royalty  is,  where 
royalty  comes  from,  and  by  what  means 
royalty  came  to  power,  then  surely  they 
soon  would  come  to  the  conclusioD  that  the 


14  DO^^"  t^t:th  tyranny. 

life  of  a  highwayman  is,  in  comparison,  an 
honest  and  respectable  one. 

The  road  over  which  the  predecessors  of 
European  royalty  trayelled  is  soiled  and 
stained  with  blood.  Nothing  was  sacred;  no 
act  was  too  mean,  too  low,  for  them.  The 
continuous  chain  of  crimes  committed  were 
of  such  a  cruel  nature  that  it  makes  the 
blood  freeze  in  the  veins  of  every  honest 
thinking  person.  They  have  at  last  suc- 
ceeded, as  every  bandit  will  succeed,  who 
knows  how  to  overcome  any  kind  of  obstruc- 
tion and  opposition.  What  they  have  ob- 
tained by  robberies,  by  plundering,  by  mur- 
dering, and  b}^  many  other  infamous  deeds 
they  claim  to  be  their  property,  and  they 
are  trying  to  make  every  one  believe  that  it 
was  granted  to  them  by  the  grace  of  God. 

History  has  shown  that  honor  is  entirely 
unknoT^TL  to  royalty,  and  that  upon  its  word 
no  one  can  depend. 

In  the  hour  of  peril  and  danger,  royalty 
makes  all  kinds  of  promises  to  the  people — 
but  it  breaks  them  as  soon  as  it  feels  itself 
safe  and  at  the  summit  of  its  former  power 
again. 

Those  who  msh  to  see  royal  promises  ful- 
filled, are,  as  experience  has  sho^^^l,  cut  or 
torn  to  pieces  by  swords  or  cannon-balls. 

Eoyalty  quarrels,  fights  with,  and  is  en- 


DOWN    WITH   TYRANNY.  15 

vious  and  jealous  of  otlier  rulers,  but  it 
sticks  together  like  pitcli  when  it  goes  to 
war  against  its  common  enemy — against 
freedom,  enlightenment,  and  the  natural 
rights  of  men. 


eHAPTER  III. 

Of  all  the  European  slave  states,  my  na- 
tive country  is  the  most  unfortunate  one. 

Germany,  a  country  of  about  the  size  of 
California,  but  in  natural  resources  far 
poorer,  is  to-day  still  terrorized  by  no  less 
then  twenty -three  reigning  royal  families. 

That  worthless  lot  of  blue-blooded  frauds 
and  loafers  are  squeezing  the  very  best  sub- 
stance out  of  the  poor  and  trembling  people. 
They  devour  for  their  own  support  and  for 
that  of  their  rotten  relationship — ^which 
sticks  to  them  like  leeches,  and  which  can 
be  counted  by  thousands — over  one  hundred 
millions  of  dollars  every  year — or  about  as 
much  as  grateful  America  pays  to  pension 
those  who,  in  the  hour  of  danger,  were  will- 
ing to  sacrifice  their  lives  for  the  welfare 
and  for  the  preservation  of  the  constitution 
of  their  country. 

The  poverty  of  the  German  people  is 
simply  terrible.    It  has  reached  such  a  de* 


16  DOVrS    WITH    TYRANNY. 

gree  that  they  cannot  buy  even  the  most 
necessary  things. 

It  is  hard  to  believe  in  America  that  the 
greater  part  of  the  German  people  cannot 
afford  the  luxury  of  a  roast  or  of  a  porter- 
house steak,  and  that  millions  of  skillful, 
brave  and  honest  workingmen  know  meat 
only  by  name.  ,  Potatoes,  salt  and  pepper  is 
the  daily  food  of  those  poor  creatures;  on 
Sunday  a  little  rancid  butter  to  dip  the 
potatoes  in,  and  perhaps  once  or  twice  a 
year  a  piece  of  meat — meat,  which  in  Amer- 
ica even  a  tramp  would  hardly  touch. 

Bread  is  looked  upon  as  an  article  of  lux- 
ury, and  potatoes  are  beginning  to  be  con- 
sidered as  a  luxury  also.  If  the  extrava- 
gance of  those  royal  blook-suckers  cannot  be 
stopped,  and  if  they  are  allowed  to  go  on  in 
the  same  degree,  then  the  time  is  not  far 
distant  when  the  German  people  will  con- 
sider potato-peelings  as  the  finest  delicacy. 

Ireland  used  to  be  the  most  oppressed 
country  in  Europe,  but  now  Germany  has 
reached  the  same  standard.  The  misery 
among  the  German  people  is  just  as  great 
as  among  the  Irish,  who  have  to  starve,  to 
bleed,  and  to  toil  in  order  to  support  roy- 
alty and  the  corrupt  and  rotten  aristocracy. 

At  present  poor,  unfortunate  Ireland  is 
still  at  the  mercy  of  its  English  oppressors. 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNT.  IT 

But  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the 
gallant  Irish  people  will  succeed  in  their 
struggle  for  freedom,  libel'ty  and  indepen- 
dence; when  they  will  recover  what  was 
stolen  from  them  by  royal  thieves  and  mur- 
derers, and  when  they  will  drive  those  mis- 
erable, contemptible  bloodhounds  from  Irish 
soil  forever. 

The  cruelty  which  is  used  in  Germany  to 
suppress  every  free  motive,  and  the  v^ay 
those  people  are  pursued  and  punished  who 
are  not  yet  bent  down  to  be  mere  tools  is  hor- 
rible, and  in  accordance  with  the  most  bar- 
barous times  of  past  centuries.  Those  who  in 
the  slightest  way  oppose  the  cruel,  unjust 
laws  of  their  oppressoBS  are  thrown  in  jail — 
they  are  sentenced  behind  closed  doors,  and 
no  punishment  seems  too  hard  or  too  cruel 
for  them. 

Tender-hearted  and  noble-minded  judges 
are  dismissed,  and  replaced  by  servile  creat- 
ures who  act  according  to  the  wishes  of 
their  ro^^al  masters. 

Brave  and  noble  men  who  have  commit- 
ted no  wrong  except  that  they  have  shown 
sympathy  for  the  misery  of  their  unfortu- 
nate countrymen,  are  languishing  by  thous- 
ands amidst  the  infected,  poisonous  air  of 
German  dungeons — not  knowing  whether 
the  day  of  their  release  will  ever  eome. 


18  DOWN   T^^TH    TYRANNY. 

Spyisni,  as  it  prevails  at  present  in 
Germany,  could  not  have  been  worse  in 
Spain  in  the  time  of  tlie  notorious  hangman, 
the  grand-inquisitor,  Thomas  Torquemada 
No  one  is  safe  from  his  neighbor.  Every  one 
has  to  be  on  his  guard,  and  just  as  in  the 
time  of  the  infamous  Inquisition,  no  one  can 
trust  in  Germany  even  in  the  nearest  mem- 
bers of  his  family. 

Every  one  who  denounces  those  who  are 
hostile  towards  the  Government,  is  reward- 
ed, and  every  one  who  does  not  do  it,  gets 
his  punishment  sooner  or  later. 

The  father  sees  in  his  son,  the  son  in  his 
father,  the  brother  in  his  brother,  a  spy  and 
denouncer.  If  thereby  the  domestic  happi- 
ness of  the  German  people  becomes  ruined 
and  undermined,  royalty  is  entirely  indiffer- 
ent, desiring  only  the  interest  of  the  Gov- 
ernment. 

Disunity  among  the  people  strengthens 
— Unity  endangers  the  throne  of  European 
tyrants. 

Honest  and  respectable  men  have  lost 
their  value  in  Germany.  They  have  had  to 
leave,  in  order  to  make  a  place  for  hypocrites 
or  other  contemptible  T^Tetches. 

Braite  strength  is  esteemed  higher  than 
right — stupidit}^  higher  than  ability— igno- 
rance higher  than  knowledge,  in  spite  of  the 


DOWN    A^TTII    TYRANXl.  19 

fact  that  all  the  Government  partisans  af- 
firm the  contrary,  and  try  to  make  jjeople 
believe  that  impartiality  exists  in  no  coun- 
try in  the  world  to  such  an  extent  as  in  the 
German  Empire. 

The  best  and  ablest  men,  who,  at  the  same 
time  have  the  interest  of  the  people  in  view, 
have  to  flee,  and  the  most  stupid  and  impu- 
dent blockheads  who  only  believe  in  the  Di- 
vine right  of  royalty,  are  working  them- 
selves up  to  the  highest  and  most  profitable 
offices  in  the  country. 

Every  one  in  Germany  who  wants  to  live 
in  quietness,  and  who  wishes  to  be  protected 
by  the  Government,  has  to  humble  himself 
to  the  lowest  degree,  and  has  to  go  down  to 
the  level  of  brainless  brutes.  He  has  to 
obey  orders;  he  is  treated  like  a  dog,  and  he 
is  not  allowed  to  grumble,  even  when  his 
dearest  is  dragged  by  police  force  out  of  his 
house,  and  thrown  into  the  filthy  political 
prison  cells. 

Besides,  he  has  to  be  hardhearted,  with- 
out any  feeling  for  his  fellow-creatures,  and 
he  has  to  treat  his  subordinates  just  as 
meanly  as  he  is  treated  himself  by  his  supe- 
riors. If  he  does  not  do  it,  and  if  he  shows 
sjnnpathy  for  his  poor  unfortunate  coun- 
trymen, then  at  once  he  antagonizes  himself 
mth  the  existing  laws  of  his  country.    He 


20  DOWN    WITH    TYRANNY. 

is  considered  a  socialist,  dangerous  to  liis 
Government,  and  from  that  moment  the 
police  €lo  everything  to  make  his  life  in 
Germany  as  unpleasant  as  possible. 

The  German  police  are  practically  all- 
powerful.  They  are  a  lot  of  blood-thirsty 
executioners,  with  whom  an  honest  person 
would  be  ashamed  to  serve.  -  ^ 

Obedience  and  servile  submissiveness  to- 
wards royalty  is  the  main  thing  that  is  re- 
quired from  them. 

If  the  orders  are  given,  they  butcher 
friends,  relations,  wives  and  children  with 
the  same  ease  that  an  African  savage  would 
do  it  with  his  prisoners. 

They  annoy  and  harass  the  people  where 
and  whenever  they  can,  and  they  give  them 
to  understand  that  it  is  only  a  favor  to  be 
allowed  to  live  in  their  ot\ti  country. 

On  account  of  the  savage  instincts  of  these 
hangmen,  they  have  at  last  succeeded  in 
forcing  the  German  people  to  gaze  upon 
them  with  fear  and  terror;  in  their  presence 
they  scarcely  dare  to  open  their  mouths, 
and  they  hate  and  despise  them  in  the  same 
way  that  they  do  royalty. 

The  American  police  are  here  to  bring  to 
their  senses  those  who  have  disgraced  them- 
selves as  citizens— the  German  police  are 
there  to  keep  the  people  in  fear  and  servil- 


DOA\^    WITH    TYIIANNY.  21 

ity — in  obedience — and  to  drag  to  prison 
those  who  in  a  free  and  nnfettered  country 
would  be  considered  respectable  and  law- 
abiding. 

Murderers,  thieves  and  other  rogues,  per- 
haps having  the  walls  of  their  rooms  deco- 
rated mth  dozens  of  pictures  of  the  German 
Emperor,  are  safer  and  better  protected 
than  the  best  and  noblest  men,  who  per- 
haps have  only  dared  to  think  ;  who  has 
given  the  right  to  those  tyrants  to  trample 
upon  them  and  to  squeeze  the  very  last 
blood-drop  out  of  them? 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Every  one  loves  the  land  where  he  was 
born,  where  he  spent  the  happiest  time  of 
his  childhood,  and  is  glad  if  he  can  see  those 
places  of  pleasant  remembrance  again.  In 
Germany,  however,  such  a  pleasure  is  not 
easy  to  realize,  and  is  allowed  only  under 
certain  conditions. 

A  German  who  loves  his  country,  and 
places  it  above  his  Emperor,  is  considered 
an  outlaw  and  a  traitor  to  his  native  land. 

A  German  is  obliged  to  love  only  his  sov- 
ereign, and  to  sacrifice  himself  in  his  be- 
half without  a  murmur. 


22  DOWN  WITH   TYRANNY. 

The  fatherland  plays  no  figure  whatever. 
It  ranks  in  the  third  or  in  the  last  line. 

With  God  for  royalty  and  fatherland,  is 
the  motto  of  those  miserable,  contemptible 
wretches. 

Even  in  countries  which  are  far  behind 
the  age,  it  seems  ridiculous  and  almost  im- 
possible to  understand  that  a  hollow-headed 
despot  should  be  allowed  to  arrogate  to  him- 
self thsLt-^Suprema  lex  voluntas  regis — viz: 
that  the  will  of  the  ruler  is  the  highest 
law. 

They  ought  to  get  hold  of  such  a  danger- 
ous crank,  put  him  as  coal-trimmer  on 
board  of  a  steamer,  and  make  him  work  till 
he  knows  how  to  behave  himself  in  the  pres- 
ence of  honest  and  respectable  people. 

Koyalty  does  everything  to  keep  the  peo- 
ple in  ignorance  and  stupidity,  but  in  spite 
of  all  precaution,  and  in  spite  of  a  censor- 
ship and  a  police-cordon,  the  breeze  of  free- 
dom and  liberty,  that  blows  over  from  Amer- 
ica, is  permitted  to  find  its  way  to  the  ears 
and  hearts  of  these  poor,  tyrannized  people. 

It  is  the  law  of  nature  that  enlightenment 
and  ignorance,  freedom  and  tyranny,  are 
always  in  an  antagonistic  relation  toward 
each  other. 

America,  as  tUe  freest  and  most  civilized 
country  on  our  globe,  is  therefore  considered 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY,  ^3 

by  all  the  sovereigns  of  European  slave- 
states  as  their  greatest  enemy. 

Royalty  knows  that  America  looks  with 
compassion  upon  the  poor  tyrannized  peo- 
ple, and  with  scornful  contempt  upon  their 
hard-hearted  oppressors. 

If  it  lay  in  the  power  of  European  tyrants, 
they  would  pounce  upon  America  to-mor- 
row. They  would  butcher  the  inhabitants, 
they  would  cut  the  land  to  pieces,  they 
would  make  monarchies  and  slave-states  out 
pf  it;  and  they  would  place  some  of  their 
rotten  oif spring  as  kings  and  emperors  on 
the  thrones. 

But  as  this  is  an  impossibility,  and  as  Eu- 
rope cannot  live  without  the  aid  of  America, 
royalty  imitates  the  Jesuits,  and  makes  the 
best  of  a  bad  case,  and  does  everything  in 
its  power  to  give  the  people  a  most  unfavor- 
able opinion  of  America  and  of  the  Amer- 
icans. 

If  the  European  despots  w^ould  declare 
war  to  America,  then  the  European  people 
would  have  the  best  chance  to  get  rid  of 
royalty  at  once,  and  to  transform  monarch- 
ies into  republics. 

In  case  that  one,  two,  or  all  the  European 
slave-states  together  should  go  against 
America — in  case  their  fleet  should  cross 
the   Atlantic   without   being   molested   by 


or  THB 


2m  DOWN   WITH   TTBANNY. 

jlmerican  men-of-war^-in  case  they  should 
disembark  their  troops  and  their  war-ma- 
terial without  being  opposed  bv  American 
forces — then,  out  of  every  hundred  thousand 
soldiers  landed,  at  least  seventy-five  thous- 
and would  at  once  turn  round,  and  without 
the  assistance  of  the  Americans,  would  fight 
and  destroy  their  oppressors  themselves. 

They  would  do  the  same  as  thousands  of 
Germans  did  during  the  American  war  of 
Independence,  who  had  to  fight  in  British 
uniform  for  the  sake  of  England^s  tyranny. 

Those  poor  fellows  who  were  torn  from 
their  families  in  Germany,  who  were  tied 
together  and  so^ld  like  cattle  to  the  English 
Government,  and  who  were  shipped  as  Brit- 
ish soldiers  over  to  America — of  course  took 
the  very  first  opportunity  to  desert  their 
standard,  and  to  run  over  to  the  Americans 
in  order  to  fight  under  the  glorious  stars 
and  stripes  for  freedom  and  liberty  agaiiist 
tyranny  and  slavery;. 

During  the  war  of  American  Independ- 
ence, those  despicable  German  sovereigns 
gold  over  thi-rty  thousand  of  their  poor,  un- 
fortunate subjects  to  the  English  Govern- 
ment, for  which  it  paid  them  on  an  average 
a  little  over  a  thousand  dollars  a  head.  The 
most  notorious  and  the  most  infamous  sla^ 
dealor  was  the  Sovereign  of  Hessen,  who 


DOWN   T\^TII    TYEANKY.  25? 

alone  cleared  and  pocketed  over  twenty  mil- 
lions of  dollars  in  this  fair  and  honest  busi- 
ness, as  royalty  calls  it. 

A  relation  of  this  ccmaiUe  did  something 
still  worse.  He  sold,  during  the  Austrian 
Succession  War,  in  the  middle  of  the  last 
century,  to  two  different  parties  that  were 
in  war  against  each  other  at  the  same  time, 
thousands  of  his  subjeots. 

Father  had  to  fight  against  son  and 
brother  against  brother  in  order  to  fill  the 
packet  of  such  an  infernal  monster. 

Nero  can  be  considered  an  angel  in  com- 
parison with  these  kind  and  tender  hearted 
German  gentlemen. 

Kow-a-days  the  people  have  a  few  more 
rights,  and  the  foundation  of  royalty  is  less 
solid — if  it  were  not,  a  great  many  German 
sovereigns  would  do  the  same  thing  over 
again,  as  soon  as  they  had  the  chai:sce. 

I  have  a  picture  in  my  j)ossession,  repre- 
senting those  twenty-three  German  sover- 
eigns in  full  military  dress.  If  a  person  did 
not  know  it,  and  judged  by  the  low  and 
mean  expressions  in  their  faces,  he  surely 
would  take  a  good  many  of  them  for  crim- 
inals, fit  for  the  gallows. 

For  a  German  soldier  it  is,  of  course,  im- 
possible to  escape,  but  for  a  sailor  it  is  at 
times  far  easier. 


26  DOWN   ^\^TH   TYRANNY. 

German  men  of  war  who  dislike  free  coun- 
tries very  seldom  come  over  to  America,  but 
when  they  do,  their  crews  are  never  allowed 
to  go  on  shore.  The  officers  know  perfectly 
well  that  they  will  never  see  their  men  again 
when  once  they  land. 

In  countries  where  the  men  have  less,  or 
no  chance  to  inin  away,  small  batches  of 
them,  under  the  surveillance  of  a  petty  of- 
ficer, are  at  times  allowed  to  go  on  shore. 
But  in  spite  of  all  such  precautions  a  great 
many  of  them  always  contrive  to  get  away. 

Once  I  saw  a  man-of-war  that  was  scarce- 
ly three  months  out  that  had  already  lost 
over  a  dozen  men  by  desertion.  They  left 
everything  behind,  and  were  only  too  glad 
to  get  out  of  reach  of  German  tyranny. 


CHAPTER  Y. 

They  don^t  like  to  hear  in  Europe  that  the 
Old  World  would  starve  without  the  aid  of 
America.  The}^  rather  prefer  to  believe 
that  America  would  go  bankrupt  if  it  were 
not  for  them. 

These  stupid  and  foolish  thoughts  are  of 
course  only  the  consequence  of  ignorance. 

Every  intelligent  person  can  imagine 
what  would  be  the  condition  of  the  greater 
part  of  European  countries  without  the  mil- 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  27 

lions  of  bushels  of  grain,  and  the  millions 
of  pounds  of  pork,  shipped  every  year  from 
America;  not  speaking  at  all  of  petrolemn 
cotton,  and  hundreds  of  other  articles  that 
are  not  exactly  classed  among  the  first  ne- 
cessities of  life. 

Experience  shows  every  day  that  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  people  are  starving  in 
those  tyrannical  countries,  but  without  the 
aid  of  America,  millions  would  share  the 
same  fate. 

The  Eussian  Belief  Association  in  Phila- 
delphia may  testify  best  what  goes  on  in 
that  country,  and  in  what  way  those  mil- 
lions of  famine-stricken  people  are  suffer- 
ing— in  spite  of  the  Eussian  despot,  in  his 
pride,  maliciousness,  hard-heartedness  and 
ignorance  solemnly  declaring  that  no  starva- 
tion, and  no  misery  are  known  in  his  Em- 
pire. 

Everyone  who  dares  to  speak  in  Germany 
about  the  many  advantages  of  the  great 
American  Eepublic,  and  about  the  blessings 
and  the  happiness  of  American  domestic 
life,  is  looked  upon  with  suspicious  eyes. 
He  is  considered  an  enemy  of  the  country,  a 
disturber  of  peace,  and  the  police,  who  are 
set  immediately  upon  him,  are  watching  him 
in  all  his  doings  during  his  stay  in  G^er- 
many- 


2S  DOA\Tn    WITII    TYRvVNl^rY. 

But  those  who,  from  ignorance,  stupidity, 
or  malice,  disfigure  and  run  down  every- 
tiling  that  is  American  are  considered  as 
true  and  useful  tools  of  the  Government. 
As  a  reward  for  their  services  they  are 
raised  to  nobility,  they  are  presented  with 
titles  and  decorations,  and  they  have  an  op- 
portunity of  working  themselves  up  to  the 
highest  position. 

In  Germany  a  great  many  half -starved 
artists,  poets,  literary  and  scientific  men  are 
always  idling  about.  With  the  aid  of  the 
Government,  those  who  have  influence  are 
sometimes  sent  around  the  world.  It  is 
done,  as  it  is  said,  in  the  interest  of  art,  of 
science  and  of  education. 

These  gentlemen  behave  themselves 
abroad  as  the  veriest  school-boys,  and  so 
green,  plump  and  clumsy  are  they,  that  even 
the  dogs  in  the  street  bark  at  them. 

After  returning  home,  these  heroes  are 
considered  as  something  wonderful,  and 
every  one  looks  at  them  with  admiration. 
What  they  say  and  what  they  relate  about 
their  travels  and  foreign  countries  is  law, 
and  no  one  would  dare  to  contradict  them  in 
the  very  least. 

To  show  themselves  thankful  to  those 
who  have  paid  their  travelling  expenses,  as 
well  as  to  raise  themselves  in  the  favor  of 


DOWN  A\"LTH  TYKANNY.  29 

their  benefactors,  they  run  down  and  find 
fault  with  everj^hiug  that  is  not  German. 

They  cannot  sufficiently  praise  and  idolize 
the  German  Empire ;  the  exemplary  G  erman 
Govermnent;  the  enviable  state  of  German 
affairs,  and  they  point  out  at  every  opportu- 
^ity  that  a  civilized  and  intelligent  person 
can  reside  and  live  happily  and  contentedly 
only  in  free  and  powerful  Germany. 

About  the  American  i^eople  they  express 
themselves  in  the  meanest  and  most  con- 
temi)tible  way,  and  are  intimating  to  their 
countrymen  that  respectable  and  civilized 
Europeans  cannot  associate  with  them  at 
all. 

In  Europe  they  judge  the  value  of  a  per- 
son according  to  his  apparel.  The  better  he 
is  dressed  the  better  he  is  considered  in  the 
opinion  of  his  associates.  A  gentleman 
that  is  not  dressed  like  a  dude,  is  no  gentle- 
man at  all.  The  greatest  scoundrel,  if 
dressed  like  a  dandy,  is  a  gentleman,  and  the 
most  respectable  man  in  shirt  sleeves  and 
jacket  is  considered  too  common  for  a  gen- 
tleman to  deal  with. 

Being  accustomed  to  such  a  rotten  theory, 
it  is  easy  to  understand  why  some  stupid 
greenhorn,  who  once  in  a  while  comes  over 
to  America,  take  the  best  and  most  respect- 
able citizens  for  loafers — and  loafers,  pick- 


80  DOWN  T^^[TH  tyranny. 

pocliets  and  scoundrels  for  American  gentle- 
men. 

In  Europe  almost  every  one  thinks  that 
the  Americans  are  the  greatest  blowers  in 
the  world,  and  that  only  a  very  little  of 
what  they  say,  do,  or  wiite,  can  be  taken  for 
the  truth. 

It  is  of  course  the  consequence  of  tyranny 
and  the  fault  of  the  Government  that  has 
taught  them  so,  and  that  has  given  them 
such  a  wrong  and  bad  idea  about  people — ^ 
who  are  at  least  a  hundred  years  ahead  of 
them. 

A  short  time  ago  I  met  a  German  in  New 
York  who  pretended  to  be  a  man  of  ability, 
and  who,  by  reason  of  his  boasting,  every^ 
one  might  have  taken  for  an  expert  in  sea> 
faring  matters.  We  spoke  about  the  differ, 
ent  steamship  lines  between  Europe  and 
America,  and  I  told  him  that  according  to 
my  idea,  some  of  the  White  Star  Liners 
could  be  considered  as  the  fastest,  finest  and 
largest  vessels  afloat. 

He  felt  angry  and  indignant  at  my  re^ 
mark,  and  answered  me  in  quite  an  insult- 
ing  way,  wondering  how  I  could  make  such 
assertions  as  that,  that  the  T\Tiite  Stai» 
Liners  were  only  tug-boats  in  comparison 
with  the  latest  steamers  of  the  Hamburg- 
American  Line.     At  the  same  time  he  drew 


DOWN   WITH    TYRANNY.  81 

a  newspaper  out  of  liis  pocket  and  showed 
me  in  black  and  white,  that  some  of  the 
Hamburg  Steamers  were  of  ten  thousand 
tons,  and  twelve  thousand,  five  hundred 
horse-power. 

I  laughed  and  answered  him  that  every- 
one was  at  liberty  to  recommend  his  mer- 
chandise just  as.  he  pleased,  but  that  I 
thought  the  White  Star  Line  or  any  other 
line  would  feel  ashamed  to  advertise  its 
steamers  three  to  four  times  larger  than  in 
reality  they  were,  and  that  perhaps  they 
considered  their  countrymen  not  quite  igno- 
rant enough  to  believe  such  miserable  false- 
hoods. 

It  is  always  vdry  hard  to  fight  against 
ignorance,  and  to  make  hollow-headed  peo- 
ple believe  the  real  truth. 

All  the  proofs  I  gave  him  were  of  no 
avail,  and  he  only  defended  himself  by  say- 
ing that  a  respectable  steamer  line,  like 
the  Hamburg- American,  surely  would  not 
write  anything  if  it  was  not  the  case. 

To  end  bur  dispute,  I  invited  him  to  come 
over  with  me  to  Hoboken,  Avhere  the  German 
steamers  have  their  quarters.  We  went  on 
board  of  the  Augusta -Victoria,  and  I 
showed  him,  that,  according  to  the  certifi- 
cate of  inspection,  this  vessel,  one  of  the 
finest  of  the  fleet^  was  of  only  three  thous- 


32  DOWN  ^\t:th  tyranny. 

and,  four  himclred,  and  fiftj-three  tons,  and 
not  ten  thousand,  as  advertised  in  the  pa- 
pers. 

Against  such  a  proof  of  course  he  could 
say  nothing.  I  suppose  he  felt  ashamed  of 
his  own  ignorance ;  then  he  left  me,  without 
even  wishing  me  good-bye. 

For  curiosity  sake,  I  asked  different  of- 
ficers on  board  of  the  Augusta-Victoria 
about  the  tonnage  of  the  vessel,  and  every- 
one, just  like  a  parrot,  answered  me,  "  Ten 
thousand  tons.'^ 

This  shows  how  these  people  haA^e  been 
instructed  to  tell  a  falsehood.  If  they  were 
to  tell  the  truth,  they  would  run  the  risk 
of  being  discharged  as  soon  as  they  returned 
home  again. 

The  Hamburg- American  Line  knovv^s  per- 
fectly well  that  ignorance  always  sticks  to 
big  figures,  and  that  by  boasting  and  swag- 
gering, more  money  can  be  made  than  other- 
wise. 

A  vessel  of  one  thousand,  and  advertised 
as  five  thousand  tonr^,  finds  more  customers 
than  a  vessel  of  five  thousand,  and  adver- 
tised as  a  thousand  tons. 

The  real  meaning  of  tonnage  is  of  course 
entirely  unknown  to  the  greater  part  of 
travellers,  even  those  who  have  crossed  the 
ocean  perhaps  a  dozen  times, 


DOWT^    WTETH    TYRANNY.  33 

It  is  the  same  way  in  Germany  with 
pretty  nearly  everything. 

The  ignorance  of  the  Germans  in  Ger- 
many is  so  great  that  they  take  every  Amer- 
ican who  has  a  German  sounding  name  for 
a  German;  and  especially  when  those  Amer- 
icans have  become  renowned  by  architect- 
ure, engineering,  or  other  kind  of  brain- work 
— then  the  boast  that  no  one  else  but  a  Ger- 
man could  be  capable  of  such  work,  is  heard 
all  over  Germany. 

That  an  American  whose  great-grandfa- 
ther was  sold  by  his  kind-hearted  German 
Sovereign  to  England,  in  order  to  fight  as 
a  British  soldier  against  George  Washing- 
ton, is,  in  spite  of  his  German-sounding 
name,  no  more  German  than  a  German  des- 
pot can  call  himself  a  loyal  American  citi- 
zen— is,  of  course,  not  believed  by  the 
greater  part  of  my  more  intelligent  Ger- 
man countrymen. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

I  have  books  in  my  possession  which  I 
keep  for  curiosity  sake.  They  are  written 
by  men  in  German}^  v/ho  are  considered  au- 
thorities. They  contain  about  America  and 
about  the  Americans  the  greatest  false- 
hoods and  the  meanest  and  most  imperti- 


34  DO^^   WITH   TYRANNY. 

nent  lies.  Written  with  maliciousness  and 
in  the  interest  of  the  German  Government, 
their  object  is  to  distort,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
German  people,  everything  that  is  Amer- 
ican. 

As  it  is  in  Germany  so  it  is,  more  or  less, 
in  all  the  rest  of  European  Monarchies,  and 
even  in  England,  which  is  considered  as 
the  freest  and  most  independent  country. 

The  hostile  feeling  against  America  is 
very  great,  and  seldom  a  day  passes  without 
one  of  those  European  Hottentots  trying  to 
ridicule  America  or  the  Americans  in  one 
way  or  another. 

Brave  and  gallant  European  Generals 
who  consider  it  a  great  honor  to  be  ap- 
pointed toilet-room  clearer  of  their  royal 
masters,  and  who  could  not  have  served  as 
a  sergeant  during  the  last  American  Civil 
War,  are  not  ashamed  to  ridicide  the  ac- 
tions of  two  of  the  greatest  generals  the 
world  has  ever  produced, — Grant  and  Sher- 
man. 

Those  European  heroes  who  never  come 
within  the  reach  of  cannon  balls,  but  who 
know  how  to  bombard,  to  burn  and  to  de- 
stroy inoffensive  towns,  villages  and  help- 
less natives — those  carpet-knights  who  seek 
the  influence  of  royal  petticoats  to  get  titles 
and  military  decorations — and  those  court- 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  3S 

clowns,  who  stoop,  bow,  sneak  and  prostrate 
themselves  in  the  presence  of  royalty  to  the 
lowest  degree — are  arrogant,  conceited, 
mean  and  cruel  to  their  subordinates,  or  to 
those  from  whom  they  can  expect  no  favors. 

Europe  has  any  number  of  generals  and 
field  marshals  who  have  the  breast  of  their 
padded  uniforms  bedecked  with  dozens  of 
stars  and  military  decorations,  and  who 
have  never  in  their  lives  faced  an  enemy. 

They  have  won  stars,  titles  and  other 
humbugs  of  this  kind,  not  in  the  presence  of 
the  enemy,  not  on  the  battle-fields,  but  in 
their  capacity  as  hypocrites,  as  sneaks,  and 
as  contemptible  court-clowns. 

The  more  those  heroes  are  exalted  in  such 
a  carnival  and  masquerade  attire,  the  more 
insignificant  their  military  value. 

If  there  was  a  law  that  royalty,  surround- 
ed by  its  court-clowns  and  carpet-knights, 
had  to  advance  in  front  of  their  soldiers 
against  the  enemy,  then  every  one  eould  be 
sure — that  there  would  be  no  more  war  in 
Europe. 

Books  that  are  considered  in  Germany  as 
the  best  and  most  reliable  ones,  pretend  to 
state  the  amount  that  is  every  year  embez- 
zled in  America.  One  of  those  intelligent 
writers,  who  surely  knows  no  more 
about  America  than  a  monkey  does  about 


30  DO^^    WITH    TYRANNY. 

playing  tlie  violin,  could  even  calculate  that 
in  one  year  exactly  two  millions  six  hun- 
dred thousand  dollars  disappeared  through 
the  dishonesty  of  American  officials. 

If  this  should  be  the  case,  then  the  mali- 
cious writer  has  entirely  forgotten  to  men- 
tion the  millions  and  millions  which  are 
stolen  every  year  by  the  honest  and  respect- 
able German  officials. 

^N'othing  is  perfect  in  this  world,  and 
eveiy  one  has  his  faults  and  his  defects. 
Even  if  there  were  gods,  they  would  have 
their  faults,  and  perhaps  some  of  them 
would,  just  like  human  beings,  open  their 
ears  to  fraud  and  bribery,  also. 

If  a  great  and  wealthy  country  like  Amer- 
ica is  annually  defrauded  of  two  millions, 
six  hundred  thousand  dollars,  then  it  can  be 
positively  assumed  that  in  a  small  and  poor 
country  like  Germany,  every  year  at  least 
double  the  amount  slips  by  mistake  into  the 
pockets  of  somebody. 

The  only  difference  is  that  in  Germany  no 
one  hears  about  those  rascalities,  and  that 
in  America  everything  is  exposed  and  made 
a  hundred  times  worse  than  in  reality  it  is. 

In  America  they  make  an  elephant  out 
of  a  flea,  and  in  Germany,  out  of  an  ele- 
phant a  flea  of  the  smallest  size. 

Every  well-informed   German    ought   to 


DOWN   WITH   TYBANNT.  37i 

Snow  tHe  robberies  and  tlie  embezzlements 
committed  only  a  short  time  ago  in  Kiel,  in 
Wilhelms-hafen,  in  Hamburg,  in  Berlin  and 
in  many  otber  German  cities,  by  the  high- 
standing  German  officials.  But  a  hint  from 
the  Government  at  once  suppresses  scandals 
and  rascalities  of  this  kind,  and  any  one 
who  dares  to  mention  a  single  word  about 
them,  is  threatened  with  imprisonment. 

Here  in  America  are  a  good  many  Ger- 
mans that  belong  in  their  native  country  to 
the  so-called  "better"  and  "privileged 
classes."  The  greater  part  of  them  came 
to  America  because  their  money  was  ex- 
hausted— ^because  they  could  not  get  along 
in  the  same  style  as  before — and  because 
they  thought  it  would  be  easier  to  recover 
a  new  f  ortime  in  America. 

Without  any  interest  in  America  or  in  the 
Americans,  these  people  consider  this  coun- 
try only  as  a  mulch-cow.  Money  is  all 
they  want,  and  the  day  for  their  return  to 
Germany  means  to  them  the  greatest 
felicity. 

With  hateful  and  invidious  eyes  they  look 
upon  every  thing  that  is  American — they 
cheat  and  swindle  friends  as  well  as  ene- 
mies— they  do  a  mean  and  unfair  business 
— ^they  behave  like  rascals  and  cut- throats — 
and  they  bring  the  reputation  of  their  re- 


38  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

spectable  countrymen,  at  times,  into  very 
bad  and  suspicious  light. 

People  of  this  kind  are  very  injurious  to 
the  country,  and  in  some  ways  far  more 
dangerous  than  the  Chinese  are. 

A  Chinaman  takes  his  money,  goes  back 
to  China,  and  does  not  care  any  more  about 
America.  A  European  of  this  kind  is  in 
some  respects  about  the  same,  but  instead 
of  doing  as  a  Chinaman  does,  he  com- 
mences to  grumble,  and  expresses  his  grati- 
tude towards  the  land  which  has  assisted 
and  protected  him — ^by  finding  fault  with 
everything  that  is  American,  and  by  rimning 
the  countiy  and  the  people  down  in  the 
meanest  and  most  scandalous  way. 

Every  foreigner  who  has  any  practical  ex- 
perience knows  that  in  general  it  is  far  wiser 
to  associate  in  America  only  with  Ameri- 
canSo 

All  those  foreigners  who  some  day  mil 
go  back  to  their  native  country,  and  tell 
stories  about  the  way  in  which  they  were 
cheated  in  America  in  general  forget  to  men- 
tion that  they  were  not  cheated  by  Ameri- 
cans— ^but  only  by  their  ot\ti,  dear,  beloved 
countrymen. 

The  Americans  here  at  home  are,  usually, 
perfectly  contented  and  satisfied  when  they 
can  make  a  good  and   comfortable  living. 


-DOW^    VTLTU    TYRANNY.  39 

But  foreigners  who  use  this  country  only  as 
a  milch-cow  have  entirely  different  ideas. 
Their  idea  is  to  go  back  again  to  their  own 
country  as  soon  as  possible,  and  vnth  as 
much  money  as  they  can  rake  together. 

Americans  in  general,  don't  have  much  to 
do  with  foreigners,  either  in  business  or 
in  social  life,  and,  therefore,  foreigners  have 
to  depend  mostly  upon  their  own  country- 
men, and  have  to  squeeze  out  of  them  all 
they  possibly  can. 

People  who  cannot  make  their  liying  in 
the  European  Slave-States — people,  who 
would  starve  to  death  there  and  who  do  not 
dare  to  open  their  mouths,  for  fear  of  the 
existing  laws,  are  now  coming  over  to  Amer- 
ica, and  mthin  a  short  time  behave  as  if  the 
whole  country  belonged  to  them,  and  as  if 
they  were  the  rulers  and  the  Americans 
their  servants. 


CHAPTEE  ^^:L 

If  tradition  don't  lie,  and  if  it  is  tnie  that 
in  ancient  times  the  Germans  loved  freedom 
and  liberty  above  everything  else,  and  that 
they  acknowledged  God  as  tlieir  only  master, 
then  no  one  will  deny  that  they  have  lost 
in  persoual  valuf^  to  a  cousirlerable  extent. 

Liberty,  honesty  aud  independence  are  re- 


40  DOWN    T\^TH   TYRANNY. 

placed  by  tyranny,  slavery  and  hypocrisy, 
and  have  degraded  the  German  nation  in 
the  year  eighteen  hundred  and  ninety-two 
to  toys  and  tools  in  the  hands  of  a  lot  of 
lazy,  ambitions  and  blood-thirsty  despots. 

To  flatter  the  Germans  in  their  self-con- 
scioiasness,  and  to  make  the  yoke  fastened 
npon  them  a  little  more  endurable,  the  Ger- 
man Government  gives  them  to  understand 
that  they  ought  to  be  proud  and  happy  to 
call  themselves  subjects  of  the  most  civil- 
ized, educated  and  advanced  nation  in  the 
world. 

Just  the  same  way  that  tlie  government 
teaches  the  peox)le,  the  parents  of  the  bet- 
ter and  privileged  classes  are  teaching  their 
children.  The  children  have  to  hear  brag- 
ging and  boasting  of  this  kind  so  often  in 
schools  as  well  as  In  their  paternal  houses 
that  a  great  many  of  them  at  last  believe 
such  stupid  and  brainless  talk,  and  the  con- 
sequence is  that  they  look  with  contempt 
and  disfavor  upon  everything  that  is  not 
German.  With  education,  with  civilization 
and  enlightenment,  the  greatest  abuses  are 
carried  on  in  Ge^'many. 

People  who  consider  their  vain  and  hol- 
low-headed, and  sometimes  insane  sovereign 
as  a  god — people  who  have  no  more  idea 
about  what  lies  outside  the  borders  of  their 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANKY.  41 

native  villages  tlian  a  Zulu  Caffre  lias 
about  the  doctrines  of  Confucius — call  them- 
selves educated  and  intelligent! 

How  is  it  possible  that  countries  can  be 
called  civilized  where  the  truth  is  the  great- 
est enemy,  and  where  stupid  and  ignorant 
despots  are  standing  above  the  laws,  and 
considered  in  every  respect  as  infallible  ? 

How  is  it  imaginable  that  countries  can 
claim  to  be  civilized  where  no  heart,  no 
human  feeling  is  shown  to  the  misery  of  its 
inhabitants  ;  where  the  poor  man  has  no 
rights  whatever  ;  where  he  is  treated  worse 
than  a  dog,  and  where  they  value  a  person 
only  by  his  uniform,  by  his  titles  and  decora- 
tions, and  by  other  humbuggery  of  that 
kind? 

Surely,  when  in  spite  of  this,  people  still 
claim  to  be  civilized  and  intelligent,  then 
no  one  could  blame  those  black  gentlemen 
in  Africa,  who  consider  the  flesh  of  human 
beings  as  the  finest  delicacy  for  considering 
themselves  civilized  and  enlightened  also. 

There  is  but  one  country  in  the  world 
where  the  naked  truth  may  be  spoken  to 
friends  and  enemies,  and  where  a  thought- 
ful, feeling  and  well-informed  person  can  en- 
joy the  happiness  and  the  blessings  of  life — 
and  this  one  country  is  free  and  independent 
America. 


42  DOWN   WITH    TYBANNY. 

In  this  grand  and  enviable  country, 
wMch  is  built  up  by  tlie  strengtli  of  the 
American  people  upon  the  remnants  of 
European  tyranny,  besides  God,  only  one 
majesty  is  known,  and  this  one  majesty  is 
the  majesty  of  its  laws.  She  protects  the 
poor  and  the  weak  in  the  same  way  as  the 
rich  and  the  strong,  and  to  obey  and  respect 
her  is  considered  the  greatest  honor  and  the 
very  first  duty  of  every  good  and  loyal 
citizen. 

Every  noble  German  ought  to  feel  ashamed 
that  his  unfortunate  comitry  is  to-day  still 
tyrannized  over  by  no  less  than  twenty- 
three  royal  families. 

One  Emperor,  four  Kings,  eight  reigning 
Princes,  six  Grand-Dukes  and  four  Dukes, 
have  divided  among  themselves  that  poor 
unfortunate  country,  and  are  living  from  its 
substance  and  from  that  of  its  inhabitants. 

Every  one  of  those  loafers  has  his  castles 
and  his  palaces,  which  are  con>structed  and 
fitted  up  by  the  earnings  of  the  people,  and 
represent  the  value  of  millions;  every  one 
has  his  ministry  and  a  horde  of  contempti- 
ble sneaks  and  coiirt-clo^Tis,  which,  in  their 
behalf,  are  squeezing  the  people  out  in  the 
same  style  as  their  royal  masters — and 
every  one  has,  outside  of  his  ovn^  family,  liis 
mistresses  and  concubines,  who  require  for 


DOWN   TVITH    TYRANKY.  43 

their  support  fabulous  amounts  also  every 
year. 

The  rest  of  European  Slave-States,  which 
in  general  have  far  more  resources,  and 
which  only  have  to  provide  for  one  blue- 
blooded  family,  not  for  twenty-three,  like  in 
Germany,  are  not  to  blame  when  they  ridi- 
cule the  state  of  affairs  in  poor  unfortunate 
Germany. 

Those  respectable  blood-suckers  and  cut- 
throats have  no  compunctions  whatever. 
They  dispose  of  the  resources  of  the  country 
according  to  their  desires.  They  eat  and 
drinli  the  very  best;  tlie}^  bathe  and  lave  in 
claret  and  champagne,  and  all  they  know 
to  do  is  to  steal,  to  lie,  to  cheat,  and 
increase  the  world  with  their  rotten  and 
worthless  offspring. 

Every  child  they  put  in  the  world  becomes 
from  the  day  of  its  birth,  at  once  a  burden 
to  the  people  as  well  as  to  the  coimtry. 

It  does  not  make  the  slightest  impression 
upon  royalty  if  in  consequence  of  such  man- 
agement the  country  falls  to  pieces,  or  if  the 
poor,  unfortunate  people  are  starving  to 
death  before  the  glittering  windows  of  their 
gilded  palaces.  Pity  is  entirely  unknown  to 
European  tyrants.  They  show  far  less 
mercy  towards  their  fellow-creatures  than 
is  shown  in  America  towards  animals. 


44  DOWN   WITH  TYRANNY. 

Germany  is  the  breeding  place  and  whole- 
sale house  for  blue-blooded  merchandise. 
If  iu  other  countries  the  stock  is  gone  out, 
then  Germany  has  to  supply  them  with  this 
corrupted,  Avorthless  article,  from  which  it 
always  keeps  a  large  stock  on  hand. 

If  some  one  were  to  jiropose  to  European 
Sovereigns  that  it  would  be  a  blessing  to  the 
country  if  they  would  resign  and  retire  with 
an  annual  pension,  then  they  would  stamp 
him  as  the  most  dangerous  anarchist,  and 
would  throw  him  in  prison  and  torture  him 
to  death  if  they  could. 

To  defend  their  throne  and  to  keep  to- 
gether what  they  and  their  ancef^tors  have 
stolen  from  the  people^  they  would  not  hesi- 
tate a  moment  to  send  the  last  of  their  sub- 
jects at  once  to  execution. 

Koyalty  only  yields  to  force;  and  as  it  is 
out  of  the  question  to  hope  that  such  a 
friendly  transformation  from  monarchy  to 
a  republic,  or  from  tyramiy  to  liberty — as 
lately  occurred  in  Brazil — could  take  place,  it 
is  only  possible  to  get  rid  of  them  in  a  way 
which  perhaps  might  resemble  in  some  ways 
the  glorious  French  Kevolution  of  last  cen- 
tury. 

Millions  of  brave  and  noble  thinking 
Germans,  at  home  as  well  as  abroad,  would 
sacrifice  their  lives  with  pleasure  if  the  hour 


DOWN    "\M:TH    TYRANNY,  45 

would  come  when  they  could  fip^ht  against 
their  cowardl}'  oppressors  of  freedom  and 
liberty  ;  against  those  miserable,  contempt- 
ible royal  frauds  and  blackguards. 


CHAPTER  YIII. 

People  who  are  not  much  acquainted  with 
German  affairs  surely  have  been  puzzled  to 
know  why  a  brave  and  intelligent  nation 
could  not  succeed  in  driilng  away  their 
oppressors.  But  if  they  knew  with  what 
cunning  refinement  royalty  has  tied  the  pro- 
tecting knot,  then  they  would  soon  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  it  is  not  quite  so  easy  as 
it  appears  to  be. 

The  iron  discipline  that  rules  in  the  Ger- 
man army  does  not  find  its  equal  in  any 
country  in  the  world. 

The  German  soldier  is,  in  the  true  meaning 
of  the  word,  nothing  else  but  a  machine, 
who  has  to  follow,  to  obey,  and  to  bear  any 
kind  of  abuse  with  the  greatest  patience. 
Every  word,  every  action  on  his  i)art  is 
noticed,  and  the  very  least  mistake  or  mis- 
behavior is  punished  most  severely.  The 
German  sergeants,  of  whom  the  greater  part 
scarcely  know  how  to  read  or  write,  are  the 
tormenters  of  the  German  soldiers.    They 


46  DO^VN   WLTU   TYRANNY. 

play  in  Germany  a  most  important  figure, 
and  are  considered  as  strongholds  and  safe- 
guards of  German  tyranny. 

Knowing  their  value  and  the  power 
granted  to  them,  they  often  don^t  know  what 
to  do  with  themselves  for  the  sake  of  vari- 
et3^  They  consider  their  subordinates  as 
a  herd  of  cattle,  and  they  treat  them  in  such 
a  brutal  and  infamous  manner  that  here  in 
America  no  one  would  or  could  believe  it. 

In  loyal  veneration  they  are  devoted  to 
royalty,  and  all  the}'^  know  is  to  annoy,  to 
torture  people,  and  to  perform  their  military 
duty. 

After  an  active  service  of  twelve  years, 
every  sergeant  lias  the  right  to  claim  a  civil 
employment.  By  thousands  the  govern- 
ment brings  them  under  as  customhouse, 
telegraph,  post  and  railroad  officials,  and 
secure  through  them  faithful  and  obedient 
servants.  If  they  are  fitted  for  those  places 
is  a  matter  of  little  importance.  Li  these 
as  well  as  in  other  German  Government 
branches  loyalty  and  ignorance  have  more 
value  than  ability  and  intelligence. 

The  Indians  employed  by  the  Spanish 
Government  on  the  Philippines  are  in  com- 
parison with  the  greater  part  of  German 
officials  actually  scientific  men. 

That    a   great   many    short-sighted   and 


^  OF  TH  ■ 

DOWN   WITH^^^^^^giJ^^^         47 

government-trained  Germans  tliink  that  the 
German  Government  officials  are,  in  respect 
to  information  and  ability,  far  superior  to 
those  of  other  countries,  is  only  the  conse- 
quence of  ignorance;  otherwise  they  would 
know  that  such  foolish  and  conceited  ideas 
depended,  as  does  almost  everything  else  in 
the  German  Empire,  only  on  boasting  and 
swaggering. 

It  is  necessary  to  know  the  German  Gov- 
ernment officials  by  experience  to  get  a  little 
idea  about  their  arrogance  and  haughtiness. 
No  German  official  is  imaginable  without 
uniform,  epaulets,  helmet,  sword  and  gloves. 

General  Grant  at  the  summit  of  his  mili- 
tary gio^j,  and  as  commander  of  a  million 
of  soldiers,  had  not  given  himself  such  an 
air  as  the  lowest  German  Government 
official,  who,  in  his  padded  uniform,  walks 
the  streets,  and  who,  perhaps,  does  not  even 
know  how  to  WTite  his  own  name. 

The  German  Government  officials  are  a 
vain  and  impudent,  and  in  general  a  very- 
stupid  and  ignorant  set  of  men.  The  chief 
knowledge  they  possess  is  to  obey,  sneak  and 
to  fa^m  before  Royalty.  They  have  to  dec- 
orate offices  and  private  residences  with  the 
picture  of  the  German  Emperor  and  some  of 
his  relatives — if  they  did  not,  they  would  be 
dismissed  in  disgrace — and  then  those  self- 


48  BOWS   WITH   TYPvANXY. 

opinionated  but  brainless  fellows  could  not 
even  earn  a  loaf  of  br*ead  a  day. 

I  never  had  a  high  oi>inion  of  the  ability 
of  the  German  Government  attaches,  but 
since  my  last  experience  with  them,  even  my 
very  limited  resjject  is  gone. 

A  few  years  ago  I  took  a  trij)  over  to 
Eurr)pe  in  company  with  my  wife,  and  at 
Hamburg  death  carried  her  away  from  me. 
In  order  to  take  her  ashes  back  with  me  to 
America,  I  had  the  remains  of  my  departed 
wife  cremated  in  Gotha.  Every  opinion  that 
is  not  bound  by  prejudices  and  ohl-time  cus- 
toms has  to  declare  itself  in  favor  of  cre- 
mation. 

Tlie  only  cremation  hall  in  Germany  is  in 
Gotha,  and  even  to  this  one  the  government 
objects  and  does  everything  to  get  it  out  of 
the  way. 

The  expensive  way  of  cremation  in  Ger- 
many, and  the  many  troubles  and  formali- 
tie>s  re(iuired  by  law  are  the  reasons  why  so 
very  few  make  use  of  it.  My  wife  was  the 
five  hundred  and  forty-sixth  corpse  cremated 
in  Gotha  within  a  space  of  a  little  over 
twelve  years. 

I  had  to  fight  against  so  many  difficulties 
in  Hamburg,  as  well  as  in  Gotha,  that  surely 
a  great  many  other  men  in  my  position  would 
have  decided  differently  even  at  the  very  last 


DOWN   WITH   TYEANNY.  49 

moment.  Two  goTermnent  officials  had  to 
watch  the  soldering  of  the  interior  zinc 
coffin,  and  had  to  see  and  convince  them- 
selves that  the  railroad  car  which  carried 
my  deceased  wife  away  was  properly  Iccke^, 
chained  and  sealed. 

Three  days  I  had  to  rmi  about  from  morn- 
ing to  evening,  to  get  the  papers  together 
w^hich  were  required  by  the  different  govern- 
ment branches  at  Hamburg.  I  had  my; 
pocket  full  of  different  papers,  and  in  the 
afternoon  of  the  third  day,  I  went  to  get 
the  last,  the  most  important  document  of 
all. 

It  seemed  that  the  uniformed  clerks  of 
this  office  didn't  know  much  about  their  bus- 
iness; then  they  made  grimaces  and  told 
me  that  it  would  be  better  for  me  to  see  the 
Chief  myself.  I  went  into  his  private  office, 
informed  him  about  my  coming,  handing  him 
at  the  same  time  all  the  papers  I  had.  He 
sniffed  at  them  in  a  supercilious  way,  ad- 
justed his  eyeglasses,  caressed  his  beard, 
looked  at  me  with  self-satisfied  vanity  and 
said,  "  Are  those  all  the  papers  you  have?  " 
I  smiled  and  answered,  "  There  are  already 
about  a  dozen  different  papers;  do  you  still 
require  some  more  ? '' 

"  That  you  don't  know,  sir,"  was  his  rude 
reply.    "You  have  to  bring  the  certificate 


50  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

of  birth  and  baptism  of  your  departed  wife, 
or  I  can  not  make  out  that  paper  for  you." 

I  told  him  that  I  felt  sorry  at  not  being 
able  to  comply  with  his  wishes  as  my  mfe 
was  American  born,  I  myself  a  naturalized 
American,  and  in  free  and  enlightened 
America  where  everything  is  easily  and  ex- 
peditiously arranged,  no  one  requires  such 
proofs. 

But  scarcely  had  I  told  him  this  than  he 
jumped  from  his  chair,  gazed  at  me  with  a 
furious  look,  and  cried,  "Yes,  yes;  in  your 
America  you  are  still  far  behind — ^you  have 
yet  to  learn  a  great  many  things  from  us." 
A  glance  of  the  deepest  contempt  was  the 
only  answer  I  could  give  him.  We  quar- 
reled and  disputed  about  the  paper  he  in- 
sisted on  having,  and  as  at  last  I  saw  that 
he  would  not  give  in  and  that  I  could  not 
comply  with  his  desire,  I  told  him  that  I 
should  be  compelled  to  seek  the  assistance 
of  the  American  Minister,  in  order  to  have 
my  deceased  wife  cremated. 

Very  probably  these  threats  made  the  ne- 
cessary impression  upon  him,  for  he  sat 
down,  took  ink  and  paper,  and  asked  me, 
in  a  manner  that  a  thief  and  murderer 
would  be  interrogated,  about  the  place  of 
residence — the  Christian  and  family  names 
— ^^nbout  the  age,  profession  and  religion  of 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  51 

the  parents  and  of  tlie  sisters  and  brothers 
of  my  deceased  wife — about  godfathers, 
godmothers  and  about  the  name  of  the 
dergyman  who  performed  the  act  of  bap- 
tizing. He  asked  about  the  place  and  the 
time  of  our  marriage,  and  was  persistent 
in  knowing  the  age  and  the  religion  of  the 
justice  of  the  peace,  who,  in  the  eyes  of  my 
intelligent  German  countryman,  was  taken 
for  a  priest. 

No  American  will  ever  be  able  to  answer 
all  these  questions.  For  me  it  was  also  im- 
possible; and  as  I  saw  that  he  cared  less  for 
the  tinith  than  for  the  mere  formality,  I 
invented  the  answers,  and  gave  them  to  him 
just  as  fast  as  he  directed  the  questions. 

As  he  asked  me  the  birthplace  of  my  wife, 
I  told  him  that  it  was  Zenia,  in  Green 
County,  in  the  State  of  Ohio,  and  about 
sixty  miles  from  Gincinnati. 

Zenia,  Green  County,  and  Ohio,  seemed 
to  be  untirely  unknown  to  him;  he  passed 
over  it  with  silence,  and  only  took  notice 
about  Cincinnati,  of  which  perhaps  he  might 
have  heard. 

He  looked  at  me  with  a  stupid  look,  and 
said,  "  Cin-cin,  how  do  you  write  and  where 
is  this  Cin-cin-cin,  anyhow."  I  gazed  at 
him  with  amused  contempt,  and  answered 
in  a  deprecating  manner,   "Just  now  you 


52  DOWN    ^T[TH    TYRANNY. 

tsaid  the  Americans  have  still  to  learn  a 
great  many  tilings  from  you — and  now  you 
don't  know  even  where  Cincinnati  lies,  the 
greatest  and  most  important  city  in  the 
State  of  Ohio.'' 

"  Yes,  yes,"  said  this  blockheaded  blower, 
"  we  know  all  that,  but  the  quantity  of  im- 
portant business  we  have  to  attend  to  makes 
it  easy  to  forget  little  places  like  that." 

I  took  my  paper,  paid  my  fees,  bade  him, 
in  a  laughing,  ironical  way,  good-bye,  and 
wished  never  to  have  anything  more  to  do 
with  that  troublesome  and  antediluvian 
German  Government. 

The  name  Cinciimati  was  disfigured  by 
this  two-legged  hippopotamus  in  the  most 
horrible  manner,  and  altered  to  "Sinsin- 
gnatta." 


GHAPTEK  IX. 

Taking  into  consideration  the  means  they 
employ,  it  is  easy  to  understand  how  the 
German  soldiers  could  be  trained  and  drilled 
like  dolls. 

In  the  German  army  it  is  forbidden  to 
strike — ^but  only  on  paper.  In  reality  kicks 
and  slaps  are  so  freely  distributed  that 
one    would    thinlv    he    was    living    in    the 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  53 

fourteenth,  or  fifteenth  century.  The  poor 
soldier  is  entirely  helpless  against  such 
rough  and  brutal  treatment.  He  is  spoken 
to  in  the  most  abusive  langTiage,  and  he  has 
to  stand  it  when  they  treat  him  worse  than 
a  beast,  and  torture  him  almost  to  death. 

Only  in  time  of  war  are  the  tables  turned. 
Experience  has  shoTvoi  that  the  greatest 
tyrants  are  always  the  greatest  cowards. 

In  presence  of  the  enemy,  these  blood- 
thirsty executioners  become  cowards,  and 
do  all  they  can  to  make  the  soldiers  forget 
the  past.  But  the  rage  against  the  miser- 
able wretches  is  in  general  of  such  a  kind 
that  it  is  not  so  easy  to  forget. 

As  proof  of  this  fact  are  the  great  many 
officers  and  petty-officers,  who  during  the  dif- 
ferent wars  have  been  shot  by  their  own  sol- 
diers. Cases  have  been,  during  the  French- 
German  wars,  where  the  German  ball  did, 
among  the  Germans,  just  as  disastrous  work 
as  the  French  projectiles. 

In  winter,  when  the  thermometer  showed 
ten  degree  Eeamier  below  zero,  I  have  seen 
German  soldiers  perspiring  as  if  taken  out 
of  a  bath-house,  and  trembling  from  hard- 
ships inflicted  upon  them  by  their  cruel  way 
of  drilling. 

In  company  with  my  wife  I  saw,  one  morn- 
ing, the  training  of  a  squad  of  grenadiers  on 


54  DOWN  WITB.  TYKANNY. 

the  clrilling-ground  around  Potsdam.  A 
poor  soldier,  who  perhaps  had  sneezed  or 
moved  his  head,  or  had  not  stretched  his 
legs  or  stuck  out  his  chest  enough,  i:>rcrvoked 
and  drew  the  attention  of  his  sergeant.  He 
went  towards  him,  seized  him  by  his  breast, 
and  shook  and  buffeted  him  so  that  his  hel- 
met almost  fell  from  his  head,  and  not  sat- 
isfied with  this,  he  took  his  fist,  and  slapped 
him  in  the  face  so  that  the  blood  ran  from  his 
nose.  Without  moving  an  eje-lid,  or  a  mus- 
cle in  his  face,  this  poor  fellow  stood  to  the 
disgrace  of  Germany  and  German's  tyranny, 
like  a  statue  before  his  cowardly  tormentor. 

My  wife,  a  freedom-loying  American, 
could  not  restrain  her  tears  at  the  sight  of 
such  brutality.  She  took  my  arm  and  said, 
"  What  a  disgrace — ^let  us  go — I  don't  want 
to  see  those  German  savages  any  longer." 

Isn't  it  a  farce  to  advocate  liberty  after 
having  seen  such  acts  as  these?  Only  the 
ignorant  consider  a  German  in  Germany  as 
a  free  and  independent  man,  but  every  re- 
flecting person  knows  that  he  is  a  slave  in 
the  true  meaning  of  the  word,  and  that  he 
has  fewer  rights  and  less  protection  than 
the  slaves  had  formerly  in  America. 

The  life  of  a  human  being  has  no  value 
in  Germany,  and  esx)ecially  in  the  German 
army  and  navy. 


DOWN   WITII   TYEANNY,  53 

By  parades,  by  marcliing  and  by  manoe- 
vers,  hundreds  of  i30or  fellows  lose  their 
lives  every  year.  The  real  number  of  vic- 
tims no  one  will  ever  know,  as  it  is  to  the 
interest  of  the  Government  to  keep  those 
things  secret.  Drilling,  parading  and  exer- 
cising German  soldiers  are  in  many  respects 
far  more  dangerous  than  facing  an  enemy 
on  the  battle-field. 

To  show  how  they  understand  punishing 
in  the  German  army,  I  will  relate  one  case. 
A  son  of  one  of  my  schoolmates  in  Germany 
had  to  do  slave-service  for  his  Emperor.  To 
celebrate  his  twentieth  birthday,  he  treated 
some  of  his  comrades  and  his  sergeant  to 
a  keg  of  beer.  The  effect  of  the  beverage 
soon  made  them  feel  hilarious,  and  they  com- 
menced to  dispute  and  to  contradict  the 
words  of  their  iDctty-officer.  He  also,  under 
its  influence,  wanted  to  show  his  military 
authority,  and,  perhaps  not  on  good  terms 
with  him,  they  pushed  him  out  of  the  door 
into  the  fresh,  open  air.  Next  day  the  ser- 
geant denounced  the  four  soldiers,  owing  to 
which  he  who  had  celebrated  his  birthday, 
was  sentenced  to  seven,  and  the  other  three 
to  ^Ye  years'  compulsory  labor  within  a 
German  fortress. 

Petitions  of  mitigation  which  were  pre- 
sented by  the  parents  of  these  young  people 


50  tDOWN   WITH   TYEANNY. 

to  the  military  authorities  were  utterly;  dis- 
regarded. 

The  sergeant  was  corrected  with  a  light 
rebuke — because  lie  kept  company  with 
common  soldiers. 

Those  who  dare  to  make  their  jokes 
about  royal  personages  are  punished  in 
quite  another  way.  Eoyalty  stands  in 
poor,  despotic  Germany  above  the  law,  and 
therefore  outside  the  boundary  of  insult. 
Eyery  word,  every  look,  every  irreverent 
smile  is  considered  as  high  treason,  and  pun- 
ished at  once  with  merciless  severity. 

An  Emperor,  a  King,  or  some  one  else 
who  belongs  to  this  horde  of  blue-blooded 
loafers,  may  shoot  down  anyone  he  likes, 
without  even  the  slightest  punishment  be- 
ing inflicted  upon  Mm. 

Friends  and  relations  who  defend  these 
slain  and  murdered  men,  are,  as  experience 
lias  shown,  dragged  into  prison  and  treated 
as  mutineers  and  criminals  against  the 
rights  of  majesty. 

People,  who  for  like  infamous  deeds, 
would  be  lynched  in  America — are  superior 
to  the  laws;  and  people  who  in  America 
would  be  almost  too  stupid  to  be  hog-drivers 
are  there  making  the  laws. 

Any  one  who  dares  to  say  that  royalty  is 
not  made  out  of  better  clay,  or  that  the 


Bowisr  wrri^  tthanny.  5T 

brains  of  the  German  Emperor  are  not  more 
valuable  than  those  of  other  mortals,  com- 
mits an  unpardonable  crime,  and  has  the  op- 
portunity of  thinking  more  about  this  sub- 
ject within  the  walls  of  a  Oernian  Bastille. 

Once  I  came  through  Berlin,  and  saw  in 
one  of  the  streets  a  poor  fellow  dragged 
along  with  his  arms  tied  behind  his  back, 
and  surrounded  b}^  half  a  dozen  policemen. 
He  was  a  carpenter,  denounced  by  spies, 
and  taken  by  force  out  of  a  house  in  process 
of  construction,  in  which  he  was  working. 
His  whole  crime  consisted  in  some  depre- 
ciating remarks  made  because  on  the  oppo- 
site guard  post  some  thirty  soldiers  were 
called  under  arms  in  order  to  salute  the 
imperial  babies  which  were  driven  by  in  an 
open  carriage. 

As  a  crime  committed  against  members 
of  his  Imperial  and  Royal  Majesty,  this  poor 
fellow  was  tried  behind  closed  doors,  and 
sentenced  to  three  years'  imprisonment. 

Thousands  and  thousands  of  brave  and 
honest  Germans  who  have  committed  a  sim- 
ilar crime,  are  inhabiting  the  German  dun- 
geons, and  are  languishing  under  the  merci- 
less whip  of  Gerinau  t^Tanny. 


58  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

CHAPTER  X. 

To  flatter  tlie  Germans  and  to  sliow  tliem 
tliat  in  lionest  Gennan^^  even  a  common 
soldier  can  find  justice,  lie  is  allowed  to  com- 
plain about  the  brutality  with  which  he 
has  been  treated. 

In  theory  it  sounds  all  right,  but  in  prac- 
tice it  is  entirely  different,  and  besides,  con- 
nected with  a  great  many  dangers. 

A  soldier  that  for  instance  wants  to  com- 
plain about  his  first  sergeant,  has  to  present 
his  Tvnritten  statement  to  his  corporal,  from 
whom  it  goes,  while  leaping  over  the  de- 
f endent,  gradually  upwards. 

The  way  in  which  such  a  complaint  goes 
from  corporal  to  second  sergeant,  from  sec- 
ond sergeant  to  second  lieutenant,  from  sec- 
ond lieutenant  to  first  lieutenant,  from  first 
lieutenant  to  captain,  from  captain  to  major, 
from  major  to  lieutenant  colonel,  from  lieu- 
tenant colonel  to  colonel,  and  so  on,  is  very 
troublesome,  and  takes  weeks  and  months 
before  it  gets  to  its  proper  place. 

In  the  meantime  the  defendant,  whose 
savage  nature  only  becomes  enraged  by  such 
a  proceeding,  finds  time  and  chance  enough 
to  tease  and  to  torment  the  plaintiff  in  such 
a  way  that  he  often  prefers  to  end  the  mis- 
ery of  his  existance  by  his  own  hand.     Cases 


DOWN    WITH    TYRANNY.  59 

of  this  kind  have  happened  very  often,  and 
will  happen  still  in  future,  so  long  as  some 
radical  change  is  not  made. 

In  case  a  soldier  should  complain  not 
strictly  according  to  directions — then  pun- 
ishment is  given  as  answer. 

As  it  lies  in  the  interest  of  every  tyrant 
never  to  drive  away  any  one  that  works  for 
the  welfare  of  his  house — it  is  easy  to  under- 
stand that  the  sentence  inflicted  upon  those 
officers  or  petty  officers  is  always  very  mild. 
A  rebulvc,  a  short  arrest  in  his  room,  or  a 
removal  into  another  regiment  is  most  all. 

Since  the  jear  eighteen  hundred  and  four- 
teen, the  military  service  has  been  compul- 
sory all  over  Prussia,  and  for  the  last  twenty- 
five  years  over  the  rest  of  Germany  also. 
Everyone  who  is  not  crippled  has  to  do  slave- 
service  to  his  Sovereign. 

At  Hamburg,  up  to  the  year  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty-six,  every  one  could  avoid 
military  service  by  placing  a  substitute. 

Any  young  man  in  Germany  who  has 
money,  influence,  and  a  little  knowledge,  has 
the  privilege  of  serving  as  one-year- volun- 
teer; and  every  young  man  who  has  no 
money  and  no  influence,  has  to  serve  three 
years,  and  no  privilege  is  granted  to  him, 
even  if  he  has  more  brains  and  more  knowl- 
edge than  dozens  of  volunteers  together. 


60  DOWN   WITH   ITTRAN^. 

Money  and  influence  play,  among  the  doc- 
tors and  professors,  a  very  important  fig- 
ure during  the  so-called  "  One-year- volunteer 
examination."  A  great  many  of  these  gen- 
tlemen are  just  as  susceptible  to  briberies 
as  the  Chinese  are. 

Scandals  and  rascalities  of  this  kind  were 
only  lately  discovered  at  Hamburg,  at  Ber- 
lin and  at  many  other  German  places — but 
in  consequence  of  a  hint  from  high  military 
authorities,  transferred  at  once  to  the 
realms  of  oblivion. 

The  fate  of  the  poor  fellows  who  have  to 
serve  three  years  is  hard,  severe  and  very 
miserable,  and  far  worse  than  that  shown  to 
the  slaves  in  America  in  former  years. 

The  fate  of  a  volunteer  is  entirely  different 
and  can  be  considered  as  enjoyable  and  envi- 
able. A  volunteer  does  not  live  in  the  bar- 
racks, but  rooms  and  boards  with  relations, 
with  friends,  or  wherever  he  likes. 

UnifoiTiis,  arms,  horses  and  everything 
that  belongs  to  the  trade,  a  volunteer  has  to 
buy  for  his  own  accoimt.  The  order  says 
that  the  material  of  the  uniform  of  a  volun- 
teer ought  not  to  be  finer  than  of  the  rest  of 
the  soldiers — but  herein,  as  well  as  with  a 
great  many  other  things,  no  one  pays  the 
slightest  attention. 

A  volunteer  who  does  not  want  to  be 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  61 

sneered  at  or  undervaltied  by  his  superiors, 
lias  to  keep  a  three-year  soldier  as  servant, 
and  has  to  treat  him,  according  to  custom, 
in  a  mean  and  snubbing  way. 

The  greater  part  of  the  volunteers  imi- 
tate exactly  the  doings  of  their  officers. 
They  caress  their  beards  or  their  waxed  mus- 
taches; they  coquet  with  their  p'uicc-ncz  and 
eyeglasses;  they  imitate  the  sneering  voice 
of  German  officers,  the}^  wear  corsets  and 
calves  just  lilie  ballet  girls;  they  walk  the 
street  in  their  padded  imiforms,  and  they 
often,  for  variety,  don't  know  what  to 
do  with  themselves.  For  a  volunteer  the 
year  of  service  seems  a  pleasure,  and  to  a 
good  many  even  the  finest  in  all  their  life. 

A  volunteer  who  receives  from  his  rela- 
tives ih&  necessary  cash  supply,  and  who 
once  in  a  while  can  present  his  sergeant  with 
a  box  of  cigars,  w^ith  a  nice  suit  of  clothes, 
or  with  a  modest  gold  coin — and  his  wife, 
the  gracious  Mrs.  Sergeant,  with  a  smoked 
ham,  with  a  keg  of  butter,  or  with  a  pair 
of  golden,  even  of  fourteen  carat,  earrings — 
never  gets  acquainted  with  the  unfavorable 
sides  of  those  bloodthirsty  Government 
tools,  as  does  the  poor  three-year  soldier — 
who  has  no  one  to  supply  him  with  pocket- 
money,  who  only  can  provide  himself  with 
something  substantial  in  the  kitchen  of  a 


62  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

lady-cook  friend — and  who  otlierwise  has  to 
get  along  with  his  miserable  barrack-food, 
and  with  his  twenty  pf ennige  or  five  cents  a 
day. 

A  German  soldier  gets  one  dollar  and  fifty 
cents  a  month,  from  which  he  has  to  spend 
some  twenty  per  cent,  for  blacking  brnshes, 
needles,  thread  and  lots  of  other  little  arti- 
cles. He  snrely  Avonld  not  believe  that  an 
American  soldier  gets  at  least  fifteen  dollars 
a  month;  that  he  is  treated  like  a  gentleman; 
that  he  finds  amnsement  and  the  comfort  of 
home  within  the  barrack-walls,  and  that  he 
lives,  in  comparison  to  him,  like  a  real 
nabob. 

Volunteers  who  are  treated  in  such  a  mild 
and  lenient  way  and  who  are  even  allowed 
to  show  their  superiority  to  their  unfortu- 
nate three-year  comrades,  adhere  mth 
very  few  exceptions,  to  the  colors  of  their 
tyrant. 

In  time  of  war  and  during  the  yearly  ma- 
noevers,  they  take  the  lieutenants  for  the 
German  reserve  from  the  body  of  volunteers. 
But  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  they  wear  the 
uniform  of  German  officers,  they  are  treated 
by  the  regidar  army  officers  mth  contempt 
and  indifference.  They  consider  them  as 
school-boys,  as  something  inferior,  and  as 
beneath  their  dignity  to  call  their  equals. 


-DOWN   WITH   TYEANNT.  63 

I  have  a  good  many  relations  and  ac- 
quaintances who  have  seryed,  or  are  still 
serving  as  volunteers  in  the  cavalry,  in- 
fantry and  artillery,  and  who  when  the  ques- 
tion once  came  up  on  this  point,  so  flattering 
to  their  ambition,  didn't  know  how  to  boast, 
to  blow  and  swagger. 

Once  I  had  an  acquaintance  that  carried 
his  uniform  and  his  trade-tools,  used  during 
his  one-year  service  in  Germany,  abroad,  and 
decorated  with  it,  as  precious  relics,  the 
walls  of  his  room.  A  thoughtful  friend  told 
him  one  day  that  he  ought  to  be  ashamed 
in  doing  what  only  reminds  one  of  slavery 
and  tyranny.  But  instead  of  being  thankful 
for  such  a  hint  he  became  rude  and 
boisterous,  and  cried  out  in  his  ignorance, 
that  the  wearers  of  the  glorious  uniform  of 
his  Emperor  have  no  fear  of  any  one,  and 
that  the}^  could  conquer  even  the  whole 
world.  Braggarts  of  this  kind,  who  have 
fainting  spells  as  soon  as  some  one  draws  a 
pistol,  are  running  by  thousands  all  over 
Germany. 

The  German  Articles  of  War  are  hard, 
severe  and  very  cruel,  and  may  be  com- 
pared with  those  of  the  wildest  tribe  in 
Africa. 

A  soldier  after  joining  the  anny  or  the 
navy,  and  after  the  military  oath  is  takeaj 


64  DOAVN   AVITH   TYRANNY. 

by  Mm,  has  to  cease  to  love  his  parents, 
his  country  or  the  dearest  that  God  has  laid 
in  his  heart.  In  future  he  has  to  obey,  to 
love  and  to  idolize  only  his  Sovereign,  and 
has  to  consider  him  as  his  dearest  and  high- 
est palladiimi.  In  his  interest  he  has  to 
sacrifice  himself  at  any  moment;  he  has  to 
execute  the  most  barbarous  commands  with- 
out grumbling,  and  he  is  not  even  allowed  a 
moment's  consideration  to  shoot  upon 
mother,  father,  sisters  and  brothers,  if  the 
order  to  do  so  is  given  to  him. 

Many  years  ago  I  spoke  to  one  of  my  rela- 
tions in  Germany  about  the  last  American 
Civil  War.  He  had  served  his  time  as  one- 
year- volunteer  in  the  German  army,  and  had 
just  as  little  understanding  of  America  as 
the  greater  part  of  his  and  my  countrymen. 
He  told  me  that  a  hundred  thousand  Ger- 
man soldiers  would  have  done  the  same  that 
a  million  American  soldiers  did,  and  that 
without  any  doubt  they  would,  within  one 
year,  have  ended  the  war  which  took  Amer- 
icans over  four  years. 

I  laughed,  and  that  was  about  all  I  could 
do.  To  convince  those  people  of  their  igno- 
rance is  just  as  impossible  as  to  make  a  jack- 
ass a  scientist. 

To  be  allowed  to  wear  the  uniform,  to 
ride  the  horse,  and  to  carry  the  arms  of  the 


DOWN   Wmi   TYRANNY.  65 

'EmjyeTor  must  be  considered  as  the  greatest 
honor  to  every  German  soldier. 

Such  an  infamous  theory  is  taught  and 
preached  so  often  to  the  soldiers  that  a  good 
many  of  them  at  last  really  believe  in  it. 

The  country  does  not  come  into  consider- 
ation at  all — it  plays  no  figure  whatever — 
and  everything  belongs  only  to  the  Emi)eror. 

The  army,  the  navy,  built  up  from  the 
money  of  the  people,  and  everything  else 
appertaining  to  it,  does  not  belong  to  the  na- 
tion, does  not  belong  to  the  people,  but  only 
to  his  Imperial  and  Koyal  Majesty — a  Maj- 
esty that  here  in  America  could  not,  even  as 
an  organ-grinder,  make  a  living — a  Majesty 
who  would  not  be  fit  to  be  deck-sweeper  in 
the  American  navy,  and  who  perhaps  could 
not  even  be  used  as  stable-boy  in  the  Amer- 
ican army. 

It  is  the  same  way  in  all  the  European 
slave-states.  In  England  everything  belongs 
to  a  petticoat,  and  in  Spain  everything  to  a 
baby,  who  still  has  to  be  nursed  with  con- 
densed milk. 

Every  honest  and  thoughtful  European 
ought  to  be  ashamed  of  such  a  farce,  and 
ought  to  do  all  he  can  to  get  rid  of  such  mis- 
erable, contemptible  frauds  and  impostors. 


66  DOWN   T\^TH    TYRANNY. 

CHAPTEE  XI. 

It  was  discovered  by  European  despots  in 
former  centuries  that  tliey  could  keep  them- 
selves in  power  only  by  force  and  supersti- 
tion, and  that  without  it  they  soon  would 
fall  victims  to  the  infuriated  people. 

Knowing  this,  the  ambitious  and  heartless 
German  despot  raised  the  depending  classes 
above  the  producing  classes,  and  granted 
them  rights  and  favors  which  only  could 
flatter  and  strengthen  one  part,  and  irritate 
and  weaken  the  other.  Such  a  dangerous 
and  ruinous  doctrine  has  been  kept  up  to 
this  very  day,  and  it  is  the  curse  of  poor, 
unfortunate  Germany  that  she  plays  such  a 
miserable,  pitiful  figure  in  the  matter  of 
her  interior  affairs. 

That  the  useless  depending  class  would 
starve  without  the  aid  of  the  useful  produc- 
ing class  is  something  that  they  don't  like 
to  hear  in  Germany. 

The  officers  take  the  first  place  in  Ger- 
many, and  the  privileges  granted  to  them 
seem  almost  incredible.  On  paper  a  great 
many  of  those  favors  and  privileges  are  of 
course  removed — but  in  reality  they  exist 
in  the  same  way  as  before. 

Those  gentlemen  look  mth  hatred  and 
contempt  upon  everything  that  is  not  mill- 


DOWN    VnTn    TYRANNY.  67 

tary.  They  haye  the  same  principles  as 
their  ro^^al  masters  and  think  that  the  peo- 
ple ought  to  consider  it  an  honor,  if  they 
are  allowed  to  feed  and  to  fatten  them. 

The  highest  of  the  nobility,  which  in  gen- 
eral are  always  the  most  ignorant,  are  in 
possession  of  the  highest  and  most  profitable 
offices  in  the  coimtrj^;  and  the  lower  and  the 
lowest  of  the  nobility,  as  well  as  the  few 
non-noble  officers,  have  to  take  what  is  left. 

The  officers  of  the  cavalry  and  infantry, 
who  in  general  have  but  little  to  think  of, 
are  almost  entirely,  noblemen.  But  among 
the  artillery  and  the  engineers,  whose  of- 
ficers have  to  work  their  brains  in  quite 
another  way,  are  a  great  many  non-noble  of- 
ficers, or  the  best  and  the  ablest  men  of  the 
whole  German  army. 

According  to  his  mean  and  common  birth, 
as  nobility  calls  it,  a  non-noble  officer  can 
scarcely  rise  above  a  lieutenantship.  His 
imqerial  master  has  to  make  a  nobleman  out 
of  him,  or,  if  he  does  not  do  it,  he  has  to 
present  his  dismissal  and  retire  with  a  pen- 
sion as  soon  as  he  has  reached  the  age, 
which  is  prescribed  for  every  military  grade. 

^ext  to  military  officers,  to  nobilit}^  to 
Government  officials,  and  to  public  fimction- 
aries,  follows,  in  Germany,  the  so-called  bet- 
ter and  privileged  class. 


68  DOWN    WITH    TYRANNY. 

In  proud  and  arrogant  self -consciousness, 
tliis  class  looks  with  sneering  contempt  upon 
every  one  that  stands  lower,  but  with  ad- 
miration and  veneration  upon  those  from 
whom  they  most  expect  favors  and  personal 
advantages.  This  class  is  mostly  composed 
of  manufacturers,  merchants,  rcniicrs,  bank- 
ers, scientists,  artists,  and  those  who,  accord- 
ing to  their  ideas,  consider  themselves  as 
educated,  civilized  and  illustrious;  who  don't 
belong  to  the  common  and  low-standing 
working  people,  and  who  understand  how  to 
scrape  together  the  necessities  of  life,  in  one 
way  or  another. 

A  great  many  ladies  and  gentlemen,  be- 
longing to  this  class,  treat  their  poor  fel- 
low creatures  in  a  manner  that  cannot  be 
described,  and  that  has  to  be  seen  in  order 
to  be  believed.  But  against  those  who  are 
standing  higher,  they  behave  entirely  differ- 
ent— they  bow,  stoop,  sneak  and  prostrate 
themselves  in  the  opinion  of  every  honest 
person. 

To  receive  a  title,  a  decoration,  or  a  "Yon'' 
the  greater  part  of  them  do  almost  any- 
thing. Nothing  seems  sacred — nothing  too 
mean  or  too  low  for  them,  in  order  to  realize 
their  ambitious  dreams. 

But  the  fair  sex  makes  no  exception  at 
all.    A  great  many  of  these  vain,  ambitious 


DOWN   WITH   3?TTIANNY.  69 

and  hard-lioarted  ladies,  wlio  even  treat 
their  poorer  relation  in  the  most  disgrace- 
ful way,  are  flattered,  and  consider  it  as  the 
greatest  honor,  when  royalty  or  the  high 
nobility  employs  them — as  dry  or  wet  nurses, 
as  chambermaids,  or  even  as  toilet-room 
cleaners. 

What  nobility  is,  and  how^  nobility  was 
gained  people  in  general  don't  know — or 
they  surely  would  despise  it  most  heartily. 

Koyal ty,  which  committed  the  most  in- 
famous crimes,  in  order  to  come  to  power, 
has  raised  its  loyal  and  faithful  servants — 
or  those  who  did  the  lowest,  the  dirtiest  and 
the  dost  despicable  slave  service — to  the 
rank  of  nobility  and  has  presented  them  with 
land  and  money,  stolen  from  poor,  unfortun- 
ate and  mostly  defenseless  people. 

What  nobility  did,  a  poor  but  honest 
working  man  would  not  have  done ;  and  what 
nobility  calls  an  honor,  a  laborer  in  shirt 
sleeves  and  jacket  calls  a  disgrace. 

The  greatest  rascalities,  perpetrated  in 
the  most  fiendish  manner,  are  committed 
among  royalty,  as  well  as  among  the  high- 
est nobility. 

Eveiy  one  know^s  the  Pall  Mall  scandal, 
the  "Modern  Babylon"  scandal,  the  bac- 
carat scandal  and  liundreds  of  other  scan- 
dals, which  happened  during  the  last  few 


UNIVERSITY 


70  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

years  in  or  around  England's  capital.  Some 
of  tliem  were  of  such  a  revolting,  deyilisli 
nature  that  it  made  the  blood  freeze  in  the 
veins  of  every  honest  and  respectable  person. 

Those  infamous  perpetrators,  which  in 
England  are  cleared  with  a  slight  rebuke — 
because  they  belong  to  royalty  or  to  the  no- 
bility— would  be  lynched  and  tarred  and 
feathered  by  the  rage  of  the  American  peo- 
ple. 

In  England,  as  the  freest  country  among 
European  monarchies,  a  great  many  things 
are  exposed  to  a  certain  extent — and  there- 
fore it  seems  that  more  rascalities  and  scan- 
dals are  committed  there  than  anywhere  else. 

But  this  is  not  the  case.  The  only  differ- 
ence is  that  in  those  Continental  slave- 
states,  and  especially  in  Germany,  no  one  is 
allowed  to  expose  them;  and  that  imprison- 
ment awaits  every  one  who  still  should  dare 
to  do  so. 

The  immobility  which  prevails  among  the 
reigning  families  of  those  twenty-three  Ger- 
man sovereigns,  as  well  as  among  the  high- 
est German  nobility,  is  simply  shocking. 
The  life  in  the  very  lowest  dive  can  be  com- 
pared with  the  rotten  German  court  life, 
as  a  moral,  honest  and  respectable  one. 

Here  in  America,  where  more  morality, 
more  honesty  and  more  respectability  is 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  71 

found  than  anywhere  else  on  our  globe,  peo- 
ple of  course  have  not  the  slightest  idea 
about  the  corrupt  life  on  the  other  side 
of  the  ocean. 

Tradesmen,  farmers,  or  the  whole  labor- 
ing class  in  general,  are  considered  in  Ger- 
many as  the  very  lowest  of  all  and  are 
treated,  in  a  great  many  cases,  even  worse 
than  brutes. 

The  poorer  and  more  helpless  a  brave  and 
honest  working  man  is,  the  more  he  is 
squeezed  out  and  trampled  u]3on,  and  the 
more  it  is  shown  to  him  that  he  is  nothing 
more  than  a  tool  in  the  hands  of  his  higher 
standing  countrymen. 

One  proof  is  sufficient  to  show  how  in 
poor,  ignorant  and  despotic  Germany,  the 
most  useful  class  of  all — the  honest  and 
respectable  working  class— is  depreciated. 

The  son  of  a  tradesman,  of  a  laboring 
men  or  of  a  shop-keeper,  can  never  become 
an  officer  in  the  German  army.  It  is  be- 
neath the  dignity  of  a  German  officer  to  call 
the  son  of  such  a  low  man  his  comrade — 
but  it  is  not  beneath  him  to  get  fattened 
and  supported  by  his  parents'  hard  earnings. 

A  German  officer  is  not  allowed  to  marry 
without  permission  of  his  Sovereign,  and 
without  consent  of  the  officers  of  his  regi- 
ment. 


72  DOWN   WITH    TYUANNY. 

If  he  wants  to  marry  tlie  daughter  of  a 
laboring  nian^then  according  to  the  ideas 
of  those  heroes,  he  brings  disgrace  upon 
his  regiment.  He  has  to  present  his  dis- 
missal, and  if  not,  it  is  sent  to  him  bj  his 
fellow-officers,  and  with  sanction  of  the 
highest  military  authority. 

But  in  other  respects  a  great  many  things 
are  allowed  the  German  officers  for  which 
in  America  they  would  be  strung  up  to  a 
tree  and  filled  up  with  lead. 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

There  is  not  a  land  on  this  globe  where 
money  and  iniluence  play  such  an  impor- 
tant figure  as  in  my  poor,  unfortunate  na- 
tive country. 

He  who  has  the  misfortune  to  be  born 
poor  Yv'^ould  be  far  better  off  if  he  had  never 
seen  the  light  of  this  world.  He  is  born  in 
misery,  brought  up  in  misery,  and,  vrilhout 
having  the  sliglitest  chance  to  work  himself 
up,  he  ends  one  day  in  the  same  misery. 

Death  is  a  relief  to  the  greater  part  of 
those  poor  creatures,  who,  during  their 
short  existence  on  earth,  only  have  known 
troubles,  grief  and  sorrow. 

It  is  taught  to  children  of  poor  people, 
and  even  by  their  own  schools  and  play- 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  73 

mates,  that  in  future  they  have  to  yield  to 
the  wishes  of  the  better  and  higher  stand- 
ing classes ;  that  on  account  of  their  low  and 
common  birth  they  have  no  rights  whatever, 
and  that  they  are  nothing  else  but  tools  in 
the  hands  of  their  more  fortunate  country- 
men. Exceptions  there  may  be,  but  I  my- 
self have  seen — none. 

That  all  men  were  created  equal  is  some- 
thing no  tyrants,  no  despots  like  to  hear. 

Not  like  in  free  America  is  it  in  despotic 
and  ignorant  Germany,  where  the  child  of 
the  poor  sits  with  the  child  of  the  rich  on 
the  same  bench,  and  benefits  in  every  re- 
spect by  the  same  instruction  and  the  same 
education. 

Blessings  of  this  kind,  so  common  in 
!Ajnerica,  are  entirely  unknown  in  Germany. 

A  child  whose  parents  have  not  the  means 
to  send  it  to  a  higher  school  has  to  go  in  the 
lowest  or  in  the  so-called  people-school, 
where  writing  and  reading  is  barely  taught 
to  them. 

Chiklren  who  scarcely  know  what  life 
mil  be  to  them  become  infested  with  the 
poisonous  doctrine  of  the  rotten  and  cor- 
rupted German  customs. 

A  child  who  goes  into  the  highest  school 
looks  with  contempt  upon  the  one  who  goes 
into  a  lower  school,  and  this  one  again  in 


74  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

the  same  depreciating  way  upon  one  who 
goes  in  the  lowest  school. 

In  America  the  schools  are  kept  up  and 
controlled  by  citizens,  and  in  Germany  by 
the  Government.  In  America  the  people, 
and  in  Germany  the  Government  elects  the 
teacher.  In  America  the  community  gives 
to  children  whose  parents  have  not  the 
means,  books,  school  utensils,  and  even 
shoes  and  clothing;  and  in  Germany  they 
give  them,  instead  of  that,  a  kick. 

It  makes  a  noble-minded  person  sad  and 
depressed,  to  see  under  what  conditions 
the  children  of  poor  parents  attend 
school.  In  winter,  when  snow  and  ice  are 
feet  high  on  the  ground,  one  sees  those 
poor  creatures  in  wooden  slippers,  partly 
without  stockings  and  poor  and  scantily 
dressed,  running  to  school,  shivering  from 
the  cold. 

Their  poor  parents  have  not  the  means 
to  clothe  them  better  and  warmer,  because 
they  have  to  divide  their  little  earning  with 
their  Sovereign — in  order  that  he  can  enjoy 
and  amuse  himself  with  his  concubines  and 
mistresses. 

Without  thinking  the  very  least  about 
the  matter,  a  great  many  short-sighted 
Germans  are  repeating  everything  in  the 
same  way,  as  it  is  taught  to  them  by  their 


[DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY,  75 

Government.  They  consider  the  German 
school  arrangement,  the  German  school 
management  incomparable,  and  think  the 
German  people  in  possession  of  the  very 
highest  school  education. 

If  one  were  to  say  that  in  Germany  a 
great  many  people  never  go  to  school,  and 
neither  know  how  to  read  and  to  write — 
then,  those  ignorant  people  would  simply 
deny  it.  In  a  rude  and  boisterous  way  they 
would  remark  that  it  is  a  lie,  a  slander, 
a  disgrace  to  say  anything  like  that — ^that 
in  Germany  every  one  is  forced  to  go  to 
school,  and  even  the  lowest  and  poorest 
country  lad  knows  how  to  read,  to  write 
and  so  on. 

People  who  know  how  to  make  use  of 
their  common  sense  confute  with  proofs  and 
clear  themselves  from  all  accusations  which 
they,  perhaps,  do  not  wish  to  hear — ^but 
ignorant  and  empty-headed  blowers,  like 
those  in  Germany,  become  rude,  impudent 
and  insolent. 

It  is  a  good  thing  that  blockheads  are 
valued  and  appreciated  only  in  Germany, 
and  that  through  them  the  fact  cannot  be 
altered  that  in  some  parts  of  Germany  as 
many  as  ten  per  cent,  of  the  Inhabitants, 
cannot  read  or  write. 

I  myself  have  known  people  in  Germany, 


?6  1>0T\^   WITH   TYRANNY. 

whose  cliildren  have  never  attended  school, 
and  as  some  of  them  landed  later  in  Amer- 
ica, they  could  not  even  write  their  own 
names. 

Every  schoolteacher  in  Germany  has  to 
be  a  willing  and  adept  tool  for  his  Govern- 
ment, and  if  not,  he  gets  his  discharge  and 
is  sent  to . 

The  very  first  requirement  of  every  Ger- 
man teacher  is  to  educate  the  children  in 
the  interest  of  the  Government.  The  sooner 
he  succeeds  in  convincing  his  disciples  of  the 
Emperor's  infallibility,  and  the  sooner  he 
inspires  them  mth  enthusiasm  for  the  glo- 
rious history  of  German  sovereigns,  the 
easier  it  is  for  him  to  get  a  position  as  pro- 
fessor or  as  school  director. 

Greek  and  many  other  useless  studies  are 
taught  to  the  children  of  wealthy  pai^nts. 
At  the  risk  of  the  children's  health,  such 
stuff  is  crammed  into  them  and  to  such  an 
extent  that  they  can  hardly  find  time  for 
recreation;  so  that  their  intellectual  facul- 
ties often  become  impaired. 

An  acquaintance  of  mine,  one  of  the  best 
and  ablest  teachers  on  tlie  TJeal-school  at 
Hamburg,  was  one  night  dragged  from  his 
bed,  torn  from  wife  and  children,  thrown 
into  prison  and  expelled  from  his  native 
country  and  home. 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  77 

His  whole  crime  was  tliat  his  common 
sense  could  not  endorse  the  doctrine  of  the 
Emperor's  infallibility,  and  that  he  taught 
his  scholars  more  about  the  advantages  en- 
joyed by  the  great,  free  and  illustrious 
American  Republic,  than  he  was  allowed  to 
do.  All  his  intelligent  pupils  loved  and  idol- 
ized him,  and  were  only  too  glad  to  hear  at 
times  ^mething  else  besides  the  continual 
flattery  and  adulation  of  the  Emperor,  and 
of  the  brain-killing  repetition  of  the  same 
old  subject. 

He  was  denounced  by  his  own  colleagues, 
who  hoped  to  elevate  and  to  ingratiate 
themselves  in  the  eyes  of  their  superiors 
by  such  mean  and  cowardly  acts. 

One  of  those  miserable  creatures  I  know 
myself.  The  falsehood,  the  narro^Tiess,  and 
the  cowardice  coidd  be  seen  in  his  face.  In 
his  opinion,  the  Emperor  stood  even  above 
God,  and  to  show  that  he  believed  this,  he 
always  took  his  hat  off  whenever  he  men- 
tioned the  name  of  his  Emperor. 


CHAPTER  Xni. 

In  such  a  matchless  country  as  America, 
where  wages  are  three  to  twelve  times 
higher,  and  the  greater  necessities  of  life 
from  a  half  to  a  quarter  lower  than  in  the 


78  DOWN   WITH   TYRANIST. 

Old- World,  no  one  lias  the  slightest  idea  of 
the  poverty  and  misery  of  European  labor- 
ing peoi)le. 

Porterhouse  steak,  which  in  any  city  of 
America  never  comes  over  twenty  cents  a 
pound,  could  not  be  got  in  Germany  for  less 
than  forty-five  cents,  and  even  the  poorest 
soup  meat  costs  there,  at  least  twenty  cents 
a  pound. 

Places  where  horse-meat  only  is  sold  are 
in  every  tovm  and  in  every  village.  A  horse 
as  poor  as  it  may  be,  but  which  is  not  dis- 
eased, may,  according  to  law,  be  sold  to  any 
horse-butcher.  Thousands  and  thousands 
of  families  never  eat  anything  else  but  horse 
meat,  but  for  which  they  still  have  to  pay 
more  than  in  America  for  the  best  and 
choicest  ox  meat. 

Flour,  as  used  here  in  America,  is  there 
entirely  unknoTVTi.  What  they  use  in  the 
northern  part  of  Europe  comes  partly  from 
Eussia  and  Austria,  and  is  of  such  an  in- 
ferior quality  that  an  American  surely 
would  not  touch  it.  It  is  dark,  mixed  and 
dirty,  and  yet  costs  over  a  hundred  per  cent, 
more  than  the  white  and  beautiful  American 
flour. 

It  is  the  same  way  with  everything  that 
belongs  to  the  first  necessities  of  life. 

Wine,  of  course,  is  only  known  by  name 


DOWN   WITH    TYRANNY.  79 

to  German  working  people.  Almost  all  the 
wine  they  drink  in  Germany  is  adulterated 
or  an  artificial  production  entirely.  A  bot- 
tle of  huckleberry  juice,  which  is  sold  there 
for  Chateau  Lafitte  or  Chateau  Margaux, 
cost  more  than  a  whole  gallon  of  the  very 
best  California  wine. 

But  not  only  wine — even  tea,  coffee, 
sugar,  butter  and  many  other  things,  are 
more  or  less  unknown  to  millions  of  skilled 
and  capable  German  workingmen. 

Everything  that  a  poor  man  needs  to  pre- 
vent him  from  starving  is  taxed  in  a  most 
disgraceful  way. 

Even  salt,  upon  which  lies  a  tax  of  four 
cents  a  poimd,  has  been  considered  by  a 
great  many  as  an  article  of  luxury. 

The  tender  hearted  and  charitable  Ger- 
man Sovereigns — who  know  so  well  how  to 
enrich  themselves  by  the  sweat  of  the  poor 
— every  year  make  about  twenty  millions 
of  dollars  by  salt  taxation  alone. 

Here  in  America  it  seems  simply  incredi- 
ble, that  in  the  interior  of  Germany  a  farm- 
hand makes  only  twenty  dollars  the  whole 
year.  In  spite  of  such  miserable  pay  he  has 
to  work  during  the  summer  time  very  often 
twenty  hours,  and  during  the  winter  at 
least  sixteen  hours  a  day.  He  is  treated 
like  a   dog,  and   gets  food  that   in  this 


80  DOWN    T\^TH    TYRANNY. 

country  no  one  would  offer  even  to  a 
tramp. 

The  drivers  of  the  tramway  cars  in  Ham- 
burg are  earning  seventy  marks,  or  not  quite 
nineteen  dollars  a  month,  and  therefrom 
they  have  to  keep  themselves  and  their  fam- 
ilies and  pay  house  rent,  water  rent,  taxes 
and  a  great  many  little  things  for  which 
they  are  fined  in  the  meanest  and  unfair  est 
manner. 

They  have  to  obey  like  soldiers,  they  are 
kept  on  duty  from  five  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing till  twelve  o'clock  at  night,  and  they  are 
allowed  only  half  a  day  once  a  week  for 
themselves. 

The  police  interfere,  as  in  everything 
else,  in  this  line  of  business  also.  To  keep 
the  people  in  fear  and  continued  obedience, 
every  moment  new  laws  and  regulations  are 
made,  and  punishment  awaits  every  one 
who  does  not  obey  them  to  the  letter. 

A  driver  is  punished  when  he  stops  his 
car  at  another  place  than  that  prescribed  by 
the  police;  when  he  drives  faster  than  he  is 
allowed  to  do;  when  he  permits  a  person 
to  jump  on  the  platform,  or  if  he  should 
dare  to  sit  down  while  the  car  is  in  motion. 
The  conductor  who  gets  about  ten  per  cent, 
lower  wages  than  the  driver,  is  punished 
when  he  admits  a  greater  number  of  pas- 


DOWN    WITH    TYRANNY.  81 

sengers  in  his  car  than  directed  by  the 
police;  when  he  forgets  to  close  or  open 
windows,  doors  and  ventilators,  other  than 
the  way  dictated  by  this  troublesome  but 
almighty  authority. 

But  not  only  that  these  poor  fellows  are 
fined  by  the  police  but  the  tramway  concern 
fines  them  also.  Every  company  has  its 
controllers  or  spies.  They  receive  twenty- 
five  dollars  a  month,  and  have  to  report 
everything  that  drivers  and  conductors  do. 
If,  possibly,  the  controllers  has  nothing  to  re- 
port, then  he  runs  the  risk  of  being  dis- 
charged for  unfitness. 

Drivers  and  conductors  are  fined  when  per- 
haps they  are  a  little  late  in  the  morning — 
when  in  the  judgment  of  the  controller  they 
don't  behave  politely  towards  patrons,  when 
it  appears  to  him  that  horses,  cars,  and  har- 
nesses are  not  in  a  proper  condition,  and 
when  collisions  or  similar  accidents  occur. 

If  they  are  guilty  or  not  does  not  come 
into  consideration  at  all.  Every  one  who 
defends  his  right  and  objects  to  seeing  his 
little  earning  reduced  in  such  an  unjust 
way  gets  his  discharge. 

It  is  always  easy  to  humble  the  poor,  and 
especially  when  they  have  vnfe  and  chil- 
dren to  support,  who,  without  their  aid, 
would  starve  to  death. 


82  DOWN    WITH    TYRANNY. 

Miserable  creatures,  wlio  know  so  well 
liow  to  accumulate  millions  from  the  toil 
and  sweat  of  tlie  poor,  should,  according  to 
the  idea  of  honest  and  noble  thinking  per- 
sons, nevr  enjoy  a  happy  hour  in  their  lives. 

Owners  of  tramways  are,  in  all  parts  of 
the  world,  making  lots  of  money,  and  espe- 
cially in  countries  like  Germany  where  they 
only  like  to  accumulate,  but  never  like  to 
spend. 

The  tramway  concerns  in  Hamburg  are 
paying  to  their  stockholders  a  yearly  div- 
idend of  from  twenty-five  to  over  a  hundred 
per  cent.,  and  thereby  they  treat  and  torture 
those  who  earn  the  money  in  a  most  dis- 
graceful way,  and  do  all  they  possibly  can 
to  make  them  feel  the  misery  of  their  sad 
and  joyless  existence  still  more. 

To  get  an  idea  in  what  way  the  rich 
show  the  poor  that  they  are  absolutely  no- 
body, and  that  if  treated  like  beasts  they 
still  are  treated  too  well,  it  is  necessary  to  go 
to  my  ignorant,  despotic  and  unfortunate 
native  country. 


CHAPTEE  XrV^ 

Hamburg,  as  the  third  important  commer- 
cial place  in  Europe,  and  where  wages  are 
from  ten  to  twenty  per  cent,  higher  than  in 


DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY.  83 

the  interior  of  Germanj,  is  considered  by 
the  rest  of  the  German  people  as  something 
like  a  Californian  Eldorado. 

But  in  spite  of  this,  a  servant-girl,  who 
also  has  to  attend  to  the  cooking,  never  gets 
more  than  forty  dollars,  and  a  skilled  cook, 
who  is  at  the  same  time  servant-girl,  never 
more  than  sixty  dollars  the  whole  year. 

Families  that  do  not  even  keep  one  serv- 
ant, are  treated  with  contempt.  They  are 
considered  too  common  for  families  who 
keep  two  or  more  servant-girls  to  associate 
with. 

The  poor  servant  girls  have,  even  in  Ham- 
burg, a  most  pitiable  existence.  Mercy  is 
scarcely  shown  to  them;  on  the  contrary, 
their  employers  wish  to  get  all  the  work 
they  can  out  of  them. 

During  the  summer  they  have  to  get  up 
between  four  and  five,  and  during  the  win- 
ter between  five  and  six  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing. They  are  kept  busy  the  whole  day 
long,  and  often  don't  retire  before  mid- 
night. 

Early  in  the  morning  they  have  to  build 
and  kindle  the  fires,  and  heat  all  the  stoves 
and  ovens;  they  have  to  scrub  rooms  and 
hall-floors  every  day;  carpets,  as  used  in 
America,  are  there  nearly  unknown;  they 
have  to  clean  boots  and  shoes  for  the  whole 


84:  DOAVN  ■\\t:th  tyranny. 

family  ;  tliej  have  to  make  and  to  cook 
morning  coffee,  breakfast,  dinner,  afternoon 
coffe  and  snpper;  and  besides  tliey  liave  to 
wasli,  iron,  and  l^eep  lionse,  kitclien  and 
everj^tMng  appertaining  to  it,  in  perfect 
order. 

Every  fourth  Sunday  they  are  allowed  to 
liave  half  the  day  for  themselyes.  They 
leave  at  twelve  o'clock  at  noon,  and  get 
scolded  when  they  are  not  back  again  at 
ten  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

Such  a  life  is  worse  than  a  dog's  life,  and 
only  can  be  borne  by  those  who  never  have 
seen  or  knowTi  anything  better.  Kind  and 
amiable  treatment  on  the  part  of  their  em- 
ployers would  compensate  those  poor  creat- 
ures a  little,  and  would  make  their  life  of 
trouble  less  unbearable  to  them. 

There  are  many  people,  men  as  well  as 
women,  who  on  account  of  laziness  don't 
like  to  move,  and  who  think  it  looks  far 
more  distinguished  to  be  waited  upon  by 
servants. 

I  have  seen  some  lazy  creatures  who  would 
not  even  raise  from  a  chair  to  pick  up  a 
handkerchief,  or  something  else,  which  laid 
but  a  few  feet  away  from  them.  They  rang 
the  bell — which  some  always  carry  along 
with  them — and  a  servant,  who  perhaps  was 
working  in  quite  another  part  of  the  house, 


DOWN   WITH    TYRANNY.  85 

had  to  came  and  hand  her  mistress  the  hand- 
kerchief. 

Boys,  pretty  nearly  grown  np,  who  owing 
to  pride  and  laziness,  don't  know  what  else 
to  do,  insult  and  abuse  in  vile  language  poor 
servants  when  they  think  that  their  boots 
don't  shine  and  are  properly  cleaned. 

An  American  servant  to  whom  such  an 
insult  was  offered  would  take  the  shoe  and 
slap  the  ears  of  such  a  fellow  with  it  till  he 
knew  how  to  behave  in  a  respectable  manner 
towards  his  fellow-creatures.  But  in  Ger- 
many where  servants  have  no  rights  at  all, 
and  where  they  have  to  stand  all  kinds  of 
insults  on  the  part  of  their  employers,  it  is 
of  course,  entirely  different. 

In  those  backwood  European  countries, 
where  thinking  is  considered  a  crime,  and 
where  they  can  transform  an  intelligent  man 
into  a  jackass,  no  one  can  blame  a  poor  serv- 
ant when,  perhaps,  at  times,  she  is  a  little 
behind  the  age. 

To  show  how  dangerous  those  infernal 
slave-state  doctrines  are  becoming,  I  will 
illnstrate  one  case. 

A  maid-servant  in  the  house  of  one  of  my 
relations  in  Germany,  had  the  walls  of  her 
room  decorated  with  dozens  of  pictures  of 
the  Empress  of  Germany.  Upon  my  ques- 
tioning why  she  had  done  so,  she  answered 


S6  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

that  her  school  teacher  had  taught  her  that 
it  would  be,  and  especially  for  a  poor  serv- 
ant, a  God-pleasing  action,  to  have  the  pic- 
ture of  the  noble,  kindhearteed,  and  most 
powerful  Empress  always  before  her  eyes, 
and  the  more  she  idolized  the  original  in  the 
duplicate,  the  easier  it  would  be  for  her  to 
work  herself  up  to  a  better  and  more  inde- 
pendent station  in  life. 

I  laughed  and  told  her  that  she  would  do 
far  better  to  throw  the  whole  rubbish, 
which  only  served  to  remind  her  of  slavery 
and  tyranny,  into  the  oven.  I  made  her 
to  understand  that  every  honest  man  would 
raise  his  hat  at  any  time  to  a  servant  who 
knew  how  to  make  her  living  in  an  honest 
and  respectable  way — ^but  that  he  would  not 
do  it  for  an  Empress  who  only  knew  how  to 
live  by  the  sweat  and  from  the  little  earn- 
ings of  poor  servants,  and  who,  mthout 
their  aid,  could  not  even  make  a  living  as 
laundress  or  scullery  woman. 

I  spoke  to  her  about  the  many  advantages 
of  the  free  American  Eepublic,  and  brought 
her  within  a  short  time  to  her  senses  with 
such  effect  that  she  threw  the  pictures  of 
her  so  recently  beloved  and  adored  Empress 
in  the  fire  herself. 

To  prevent  her  new-found  ideas  delivering 
her  into  the  hands  of  German  spies,  I  sent 


DOWN   TV^TH 


lier  oyer  to  America,  where  she  has  become 
a  useful  member  of  society. 

People  in  America  must  have  been  puz- 
zled a  good  many  times  to  know  why  Euro- 
pean servants  behave  themselves  when  they 
do  come  here  in  such  a  haughty  and  preten- 
tious way,  when  in  their  own  coimtry  they 
are  treated  like  beasts,  and  often,  in  a 
whole  year,  could  not  earn  as  much  as  here 
in  a  single  month. 

Experience  has  shown  that  those  to  whom 
freedom  and  liberty  are  offered  for  the  first 
time  in  life,  in  general  don't  understand  the 
true  meaning  of  those  glorious  words. 

Scarcely  escaped  from  tyranny  and  slav- 
ery, they  find  themselves  at  once  in  a  coun- 
try where  everything  stands  open  to  them, 
and  where  the  female  sex  especially  is  re- 
si)ected,  honored  and  protected  very  differ- 
ently from  in  their  native  home. 

Instead  of  being  thankful  to  the  Amer- 
icans for  allowing  them  here,  and  instead  of 
appreciating  the  good  luck  which  has  so 
suddenly  befallen  them,  they  in  general  be- 
have most  ungratefully  and  in  such  an  arro- 
gant and  pretentious  manner  that,  in  a  good 
many  cases,  they  have  become  burdens  and 
a  nuisance  to  American  housekeepers.  They 
act  as  if  they  were  brought  up  on  cham- 
pagne and  vanilla  cream,  and  as  if  they  had 


88  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

been  bedded  from  tbe  day  of  their  birth  only 
on  the  very  finest  eiderdown  quilts. 

Behavior  of  this  kind  is  the  lamentable 
consequence  of  longstanding  slavery  and 
tyranny.  It  can  be  wiped  away  only  in 
course  of  time,  and  it  shows  itself  with 
human  beings  as  well  as  w^th  animals. 

In  Havana  and  in  other  Spanish  cities,  I 
have  seen  myself  that  negroes,  to  whom  pev- 
haps  only  a  few  days  ago  their  liberty  was 
presented  by  kind-hearted  masters,  strolling 
in  an  arrogant  and  haughty  manner  along 
the  streets,  and  as  if  fancying  that  the  nar- 
row sidewalks  were  made  expressly  for 
them.  They  made  place  for  none,  and  even 
ladies  had  to  go  out  of  their  way  in  order 
to  let  those  gentlemen  pass. 

A  dog  that  has  been  chained  bites  and 
becomes  dangerous  as  soon  as  he  gets  loose, 
and  instead  of  enjoying  the  blessings  of  lib- 
erty, he  only  makes  it  necessary  to  be 
brought  back  again  to  slavery. 

Every  American  housekeeper  who  under- 
takes the  trouble  of  explaining  these  affairs 
in  a  proper  way  to  European  servants,  will 
in  almost  every;  ease  be  rewarded  with  good 
results. 


DOWN  WITH   TYRANNY.  89 

CHAPTER  XY. 

America  is  the  paradise  for  women,  and 
the  country  where  more  content  and  domes- 
tic happiness  are  known  than  anywhere 
else. 

According  to  the  way  women  are  re- 
spected, one  may  judge  the  state  of  culture 
of  every  nation. 

The  higher  the  education  the  more  re- 
spected the  women  are,  and  the  lower  the 
civilization  the  less  respect  is  shown  them. 

In  the  United  States  of  America,  as  the 
most  cultured,  the  most  enlightened  and  the 
most  civilized  country  in  the  world,  a  woman 
as  the  noblest  of  human  creatures,  is  looked 
upon  almost  with  veneration. 

Among  the  savage  tribes  of  America, 
Africa,  Asia  and  Australia,  it  is  of  course 
entirely  different,  and  a  woman  there  plays 
the  lowest  and  most  despicable  part.  She 
serves  merely  as  a  necessity,  and  is  consid- 
ered only  next  to  a  beast  which  has  to  toil, 
to  suffer  and  to  do  the  hardest  and  dirtiest 
and  the  very  lowest  kind  of  work. 

In  the  different  countries  in  Europe,  a 
woman  ranks  either  higher  or  lower,  accord- 
ing to  culture,  but  even  in  England,  as  the 
paradise  of  European  women,  she  stands  far 
behind  the  American  women  in  her  rights. 


90  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

The  truth  of  this  affirmation  cannot  be 
denied  by  any  well  informed  person — even 
when  half -starved  poets  assert  the  contrary, 
and  try  all  they  can  to  claim  those  honors 
only  for  the  women  of  their  respective  conn- 
tries.  Even  a  Chinese  poet  sings  of  the  vir- 
tue, the  grace  and  the  beauty  of  his  country- 
women, and  places  her  in  every  respect  far 
above  women  of  other  countries.  That  in 
reality  a  Chinese  woman  has  no  rights 
whatever,  that  she  stands  more  or  less  equal 
with  a  beast,  and  that  it  is  an  unpar- 
donable offence  for  a  Chinaman  to  dare 
to  show  his  better-half  to  a  visiting  friend, 
of  course  is  not  taken  into  consideration 
at  all. 

If  any  one  in  Europe  speaks  about  the 
beauty  and  about  the  natural  grace  of  Amer- 
ican women,  he  is  in  no  way  a  well  beloved 
host.  Even  in  this  respect  they  don't  like 
to  hear  the  truth. 

A  thinking  person  of  course  understands 
that  in  a  country  like  America  where  the 
greatest  cross-breeding  takes  place,  the 
handsomest  faces  and  the  most  perfect 
forms  are  to  be  found. 

I  don't  know  what  an  American  woman 
would  say  if  she  could  see  how  her  unfortu- 
nate sisters  are  treated  in  poor  despotic 
Germany. 


DOWN    \YJTIl    TYRANIST.  01 

A  woman  who  lias  no  money  is  there  no 
woman  at  all. 

In  some  parts  of  Germany  the  women 
have  to  sweep,  to  sprinkle  the  streets,  and 
to  carry  the  dirt  and  the  rnbbish  away;  to 
keep  the  roads  and  the  pnblic  squares  in 
order  ;  to  break  stones,  to  mix  sand  and 
lime  together,  and  to  carry  bricks  and  mor- 
tar into  the  houses  in  process  of  construc- 
tion. 

In  other  parts  they  place  themselves  be- 
fore milk,  vegetable  and  coal  wagons  like 
horses,  and  carry  the  contents,  in  cans,  in 
buckets  and  in  baskets,  very  often  ^Ye  or 
six  stories  high. 

In  Thueringen  and  in  other  hilly  districts, 
the  women  strap  immense  baskets  upon 
their  backs,  and  will  fill  them  up  with  tin  or 
wooden,  kitchen  and  household  ware.  With 
a  mountain  stick  in  hand,  the  poor  creat- 
ures may  be  walking  days  and  weeks,  from 
village  to  village,  in  order  to  sell  something 
from  their  worthless  merchandise,  which  is 
made  by  children  and  other  members  of 
their  families. 

In  those  mountainous  districts  I  have 
very  often  in  a  single  day  spoken  to  dozens 
of  those  poor,  unfortunate  women,  who, 
under  the  weight  of  the  heavy  burdens  they 
carried,  were  bent  down. 


02  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

OncG  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  Wart- 
burg,  I  met  a  woman  over  sixty  years  old, 
with  snow-white  hair,  carrying  a  load^  of 
over  one  hundred  poimds  on  her  back.  She 
perspired  as  if  taken  out  of  water,  and 
trenibled  from  fatigue  and  exhaustion  all 
over.  Slie  rtsted  under  the  shadow  of  a 
group  of  trees  to  regain  and  recover  a  part 
of  her  lost  strength.  I  sat  down  by  her,  and 
found  her  willing  to  tell  me  something  about 
the  pitiful  fate  to  which  the  poor  women  of 
her  country  are  destined.  She  told  me,  with 
tears  in  her  eyes,  that  she  would  consider 
it  as  the  greatest  blessing  if  her  Lord  would 
call  her  away  from  this  world  and  end  her 
sad  and  joyless  existence.  As  I  passed  a 
little  money  into  her  hands  she  intended  to 
kiss  my  hand  for  gratitude,  and  I  had  to 
turn  away  not  to  become  overpowered  T\dth 
the  misery  of  those  poor  but  honest  people. 

In  America  they  tax  the  rich  and  not  the 
poor, who  have  nothing  or  at  least  very  little, 

In  Germany  where  such  logical  common 
sense  is  entirely  unknown,  they  have  quite 
a  different  idea.  There  the  rich  goes  al- 
most unmolested,  and  the  poor  man  who 
works  only  from  hand  to  mouth  has  the 
obligation  of  keeping  the  expensive  state 
machinery  running,  and  to  feed  and  support 
the  hordes  of  loafers  and  bloodhounds. 


DOWN   WITH    TYRANNY.  93 

GHAPTEE  XVI. 

Perhaps  no  American  would  believe  that 
in  those  poor  German  industrial  districts  a 
skilful  tradesman  cannot  even  earn  a  hun- 
dred dollars  in  a  whole  year,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  his  wife  and  children  have  to 
assist  him. 

From  such  little  earnings  he  has  to  pay 
the  Government  for  taxes,  and,  according 
to  the  locality  of  the  country,  from  ten  to 
twenty  per  cent.  If  he  does  not  do  it  by 
himself,  then  he  has  to  do  with  the  police 
or  military  forces.  They  sell  what  little  he 
has  and  drag  him  to  prison  where  he  has  to 
work  for  his  overdue  taxes. 

To  get  a  little  idea  of  what  royalty  thinks, 
I  am  going  to  mention  one  case. 

Some  years  ago  I  was  in  Eisenach,  where 
the  despot  of  that  country,  the  Grand  Duke 
of  Sachsen  Weimar  Eisenach,  had  his  civil 
list  raised  from  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
five  to  three  hundred  thousand  dollars  a 
year.  The  poverty  and  the  misery  of  his 
subjects  did  not  make  the  slightest  impres- 
sion upon  him.  It  left  him  just  as  cool  and 
indifferent  as  when  a  fly  crawls  over  the 
back  of  an  elephant. 

He  said  that  in  the  future  he  could  not 
get  along  with  two  hundred  and  seventy- 


94  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

five  thousand  dollars  a  year  and  that  lie 
must  have  twenty-five  thousand  dollars 
more. 

His  obedient  Ministry,  of  course,  con- 
sented at  once — or  else  he  would  have  dis- 
solved it  and  formed  a  more  servile  one. 

The  Grand  Duchy  of  Sachsen  Weimar 
Eisenach  is  renowned  for  its  natural  beauty 
all  over  Germany.  It  is  of  the  size  of  Ehode 
Island,  or  about  fourteen  hundred  square 
miles  in  extension,  and  has  a  little  over 
three  hundred  thousand  inhabitants. 

The  Grand  Duke  of  that  country  is  con- 
sidered one  of  the  wealthiest  sovereigns  in 
Europe,  which  means  that  he  understands 
the  robbery  business  and  that  he  takes 
every  opportunity  to  squeeze  the  very  last 
substance  out  of  his  unfortunate  country- 
men. 

This  kind,  tender-hearted  and  philan- 
thropic man  has  in  England  alone  a  deposit 
of  over  twenty  millions  of  dollars,  where  it 
serves  him  far  better  than  in  his  own 
country. 

Those  three  hundred  thousand  dollars,  the 
sweat  of  his  few  subjects,  he  does  not  even 
spend  in  Gennany,  but  in  Nizza,  Monaco 
and  in  other  places  on  and  around  the  Gulf 
of  Genua. 

His  castles  and  his  palaces,  mostly  kept 


DOWN   WITH    TYRANNY.  95 

running  by  his  subjects,  are  representing 
the  value  of  millions. 

Besides  bis  salary,  many  other  revenues 
obtained  by  different  kinds  of  extortion  are 
dropping,  not  in  the  state  treasury,  but  in 
the  Grand  Duke's  private  purse,  increasing 
his  yearly  income — without  the  interest  of 
his  stolen  money  which  lies  in  England — 
over  half  a  million  dollars. 

Every  one  who  knows  the  rascalities  com- 
mitted in  those  poor  unfortunate  countries, 
and  who  speaks  still  with  love  and  venera- 
tion of  its  hard-hearted  oppressors,  must  be 
without  any  doubt  a  hypocrite,  a  blockhead, 
or  as  great  a  rascal. 

Americans  who,  of  course,  cannot  have 
the  slightest  idea  about  such  a  rotten  and 
disgraceful  management,  will  be  still  more 
astonished  to  hear  that  the  Grand  Duchy 
of  Sachsen  Weimar  Eisenach  is  by  far  not 
the  smallest  independent  state  within  the 
borders  of  the  German  Empire. 

The  Principality  of  Eeuss-Schleiz  is  ten 
times  smaller  than  the  smallest  state  in  the 
American  Union,  Khode  Island,  and  has  not 
even  a  hundred  thousand  inhabitants.  But, 
in  spite  of  its  insignificance,  it  has  any 
amount  of  castles  and  palaces,  and  the 
reigning  sovereign  gets,  yearly,  a  salary  of 
three  himdred  and  fifty  thousand  marks,  or 


96  DOWN    WITH    TYRANNY. 

about  twice  as  much  as  the  President  of  the 
United  States  of  America. 

The  German  system  of  robbery  beats 
everything  in  this  line.  ^N'ot  in  Spain,  Tur- 
key, and  even  China  is  it  done  to  such  an 
extent. 

Not  for  shame's  sake — ^but  only  for  fear — 
is  it  forbidden  to  let  the  peox)le  know  what 
fabulous  amounts  royalty  devours  every 
year.  Every  one  in  Germany,  who  wants  to 
write  about  it,  has  to  obey  orders  and  has 
to  copy  what  the  Government  dictates  them. 
To  squeeze  those  enormous  amounts  of 
money  out  of  the  poor,  unfortunate  people, 
no  honest  men — only  creatures  of  the  lowest 
kind — can  be  used. 

The  proceeds  of  class  taxes,  of  water, 
income,  land,  house  and  furniture;  of  dog, 
poll,  salt,  fire,  bread,  wine,  beer  and  liquor 
taxes;  and  of  many  other  different  com- 
mercial taxes  are  not  sufficient  to  cover 
the  expenses  of  those  twenty-three  rot- 
ten and  corrupt  German  cut-throats'  fam- 
ilies. 

Every  day  they  have  to  think  in  what 
way  greater  resources  may  be  obtained,  and 
in  what  other  ways  the  trembling  and  pov- 
erty-stricken people  may  be  tyrannized  over 
and  humiliated. 

The  Emperor,  in  his  capacity  as  Emperor 


DOITS'    ^^^TH    TYRANNY.  97 

of  Germany  and  King  of  Prussia,  takes  of 
course  the  lion's  share  for  himself. 

He  getS;  or  rather  takes,  without  those 
millions  he  steals,  a  civil  list  of  six  million 
dollars  every  year.  The  name  "salary" 
sounds  too  common  for  those  blue-blooded 
frauds,  just  like  pension  and  maintenance 
money.  It  is  transplanted  by  them  into  apan' 
age,  with  which  every  child  of  royal  blood, 
as  soon  as  it  sees  the  light  of  this  world,  has 
to  be  donated  in  a  most  liberal  manner. 

A  so-called  crown-donation,  which  has  to 
be  bestowed  upon  every  reigning  sovereign, 
and  which  consists  of  castles,  palaces,  fur- 
niture, jewels  and  other  costly  and  valuable 
stuff,  is  not  included  in  the  civil  list 
and  in  apanage. 

Taking  into  consideration  the  poverty  of 
the  German  people,  then  every  one  can  im- 
agine how  many  sweat-drops  it  takes  to 
bring  those  six  millions  of  dollars  together 
for  the  modest,  charitable,  and  unpreten- 
tious German  Emperor. 

Six  millions  of  dollars  is  a  very  large 
amount,  and  seems  still  larger  by  compar- 
ing it  with  other  incomes. 

The  Emperor,  as  one  of  those  twenty- 
three  reigning  German  sovereigns,  and  as 
one  of  those  thousands  who  have  to  be  fed 
and  supported  by  the  toil  of  the  poor  people, 


98  DOWN   WITH   TYRANNY. 

receives  in  three  days  just  as  mnch  as  the 
President  of  the  United  States  in  a  whole 
year.  To  get  a  better  idea  of  this  fabulous 
sum,  it  is  only  necessary  to  know  that  the 
United  States  of  America  have  paid,  since 
the  Declaration  of  Independence,  or  in  one 
hundred  and  sixteen  years,  not  quite  three 
million  five  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  sal- 
aries of  their  Presidents. 

America,  as  the  greatest  and  wealthiest 
country  on  our  globe,  has  consequently  paid 
to  her  first  magistrate,  in  a  space  of  one 
hundred  and  sixteen  years,  just  as  much  as 
small  and  poor  Germany  pays  in  two  hun- 
dred days  to  its  Emperor  alone. 

The  aristocratic,  or  the  unfeeling  and 
hard-hearted  classes  in  Germany,  as  well  as 
in  other  European  slave-states,  does  not  see 
anything  in  it,  when  such  immense  amounts 
are  wasted  upon  these  haughty,  but  brain- 
less puppies. 

The  following  incident,  which  happened 
to  me  during  one  of  my  trips  from  the  Phil- 
ippines over  to  Europe,  shows  what  these 
people  think. 

One  Sunday  morning  I  sat  with  a  banker 
of  my  firm,  in  Manila,  a  wealthy  and  very 
influential  man  in  Germany,  conversing 
pleasantly.  We  talked  about  business 
about  nature,  and  came,  in  the  rim  of  our 


DOT\T^    T\aTH    TYRANNY.  99 

conversation,  to  politics.  I  told  him  that  it 
seemed  unjust  and  rather  hard  to  know  that 
a  poor  country  like  Germany  pays  to  its 
Emperor  almost  a  hundred  and  twenty  times 
more  salary  than  the  wealthiest  ancT  the 
most  advanced  country  in  the  world  to  its 
first  magistrate. 

But  scarcely  had  I  finished,  when  he 
looked  at  me  in  quite  a  reproachful  manner 
and  remarked,  "But,  my  dear  sir,  how  is 
it  possible  that  you  can  compare  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  with  our  Emperor 
— what  is  a  President  in  comparison  to  Em- 
peror Wilhelm!" 

I  laughed  and  felt  angry  at  the  same  time 
over  the  narrow-mindness  of  a  man  whom 
I  had  considered  as  highly  cultured,  and  as 
provided  with  the  necessary  amount  of  good 
and  sound  brains.  The  blood  rushed  into 
my  face,  and  unable  to  control  myself  any 
longer,  I  answered  him:  "A  President  of 
the  United  States  of  America  has  more  sense 
in  his  little  finger  than  the  German  Em- 
peror and  all  of  European  royalty  together 
in  their  conceited  and  brainless  heads. 

He  rose  from  the  sofa,  laid  his  hand  on 
my  shoulder  and  said,  "  Do  you  know  that 
I  can  send  you  to  a  place  where  the  sun  per- 
haps never  will  shine  on  you  again?  That 
I  don't  do  it,  is  only  for  friendship  and  the 


100  DOWN  WITH  TYRANNY. 

business  relationship  which  our  firms  bear 
to  each  other,  but  as  a  friend  I  advise  yoa — 
be  careful  for  the  future;  you  may  find  people 
who  perhaps  would  have  no  consideration, 
and  who  might  forget  friendship,  business 
and  even  blood-relationship." 


